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Former Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has opened up on why she approved the transfer of $322 million (about N61.4 billion) recovered from the late former Head of State, Gen. Sanni Abacha, to the office of the former National Security Adviser (NSA), Col. Sambo Dasuki (rtd). Dasuki is being probed for the $2 billion arms procurement scandal.
Okonjo-Iweala insisted that the sum of $322 million transferred to Dasuki’s office as NSA was solely for the purpose of prosecuting the war against insurgency in the North-East.
She, however, decried attempts by some persons to link her with the messy $2.1 billion arms procurement scam. Okonjo-Iweala said the disbursement was done with the full approval of the former President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, based on the recommendations of a presidential commit-tee.
She recalled that throughout 2014, there were public complaints by the military hierarchy to President Jonathan about the inadequacy of funds to fight the anti-terror war in the North-East, resulting in Boko Haram making gains and even taking territories. According to her, a lot of the criticisms were directed at the Federal Ministry of Finance under her watch, which was accused of not doing enough to find funds for the operations.
In a statement issued by her Media Adviser, Paul Nwabiuku, the former minister said that as a Minister of Finance, her responsibilities entailed, amongst others, to find sources of funding for the financing of approved national priorities such as security, job creation and infrastructure.
“In fact, the ministry, on several occasions, had to call press conferences to provide details of budgetary spending on the military, to show, against the background of limited resources and other urgent national priorities, that it was doing its best on funding security,” she said.
The former minister clarified that it was during the heat and intensity of Boko Harram assault that some new Abacha funds of about $322 million were returned with another $700 million still expected to be returned. She explained that the fresh recovered Abacha loot was not part of funds returned in 2005-2006 under.....
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