Okonjo-Iweala gave out $1bn govt funds for Jonathan’s re-election – Oshiomhole

Firstclass newsline gathered that the Edo State Governor, Adams
Oshiomhole, has accused the former Minister of Finance and
Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, of
tampering with $1bn from the Federation Account, which he claimed was
used "for election purposes."
Oshiomhole, who disclosed this on Monday at a seminar organised by the
state government for permanent secretaries, directors and deputy
directors on enhancing internally generated revenue in the state,
challenged the former minister to tell Nigerians how the Excess Crude
Account was drawn down to $4.1bn from the peak of $10bn, when no
approval was given by the National Economic Council for any
withdrawals.
He also called for a forensic audit to determine the true amount which
he said was illegally spent from the Federation Account under her
watch as a minister.
The governor said, "The truth is, many things went wrong even at the
federal level. As you might have read in the papers while the Federal
Government, under Goodluck Jonathan, with the then Coordinating
Minister of the Economy liked to blame 'governors' for wasteful
spending; for not saving for the rainy day; for not investing
properly, the truth is the real weakness in the Nigerian federal chain
has been the Federal Government.
"Our hope is that with the new President, given his pedigree, we will
break from the past. As I am sure you will soon begin to hear when all
the numbers are published. Last week, I complained aloud that Edo
State lost about N10bn over a four-year period from only one source –
the NLNG remittance to the Federation Account.
"How did I arrive at the figure? I used my Four-Figure Table and I
asked myself at $2.1bn remitted by NLNG, as taxes, and Shell. And by
the way, Shell is not the only oil operative; we have Chevron and
several others. They shared the $2.1bn based on the revenue allocation
formula, Edo State got about N2.27bn. So I said, thank God this money
came after the departure of Okonjo-Iweala and President Jonathan. If
the PDP were still in charge in Abuja, this money would have been
taken.
"That is not the only money Edo State Government has lost. You have
heard of the last instalment of $4.1bn that was in the Excess Crude
Account as of November, 2014, and from that time till today, we have
not, when I say we– federal, states and local governments have not
touched that money. We have not agreed to take anything out of it, and
yet it has been drawn down to about $2bn, which means $2.1bn
disappeared.
"But if you talk to those oil marketers, they will tell you that
within that period, they were paid $1bn, not $2.1b. So in truth, about
$1bn was taken for election purposes and Edo State's share of that
should have been about N4.6bn from that $2.1bn that Dr. Ngozi
Okonjo-Iweala, the former Minister of Finance illegally took from
Excess Crude account.
Oshiomhole added, "Governments have lost a lot of money and the
$2.1bn, that is Edo State's share of that, because that would have
included derivation, we would have made about N2.6bn. That, we have
lost now to Okonjo-Iweala. Now that she claimed she used it, between
herself and the last President, they agreed to take the money to pay
oil marketers."
Meanwhile, Okonjo-Iweala on Monday night denied withdrawing the sum of
$1bn from the Excess Crude Account to finance the campaign of former
President Goodluck Jonathan.
In a statement issued by her Media Adviser, Mr. Paul Nwabuikwu, the
former finance minister described the allegation by Governor Adams
Oshiomhole of Edo State that she spent $1bn out of the ECA to fund the
re-election bid of former President Jonathan as a "ludicrously false
statement that has unfortunately become a trademark of the Governor in
his public campaign of falsehood."
The statement said the comment by the governor was "just another
example of the numerical diarrhea that seems to have afflicted His
Excellency in recent times in his effort to damage the reputation of
the former Minister."
It read in part, "He has, within the last few months, asked
Okonjo-Iweala to explain all kinds of totally wild and unsubstantiated
figures, ranging from $30bn, $20bn, $2.1bn, N720bn and now $1bn.
"To say the obvious, the accusations are totally lacking in
credibility. Governor Oshiomhole's published comments also contain
other falsehoods."
"Dr Okonjo-Iweala never said the Federation Accounts Allocation
Committee approved spending out of the ECA. Rather as the
commissioners themselves stated, the former Minister of State Finance
informed them that former President Jonathan approved the expenditure
to end the debilitating fuel queues across the country."
Firstclassnewsline.net