Human rights lawyer, Femi Falana has replied former
Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala who on
Monday Jan. 25, described him as an Intergrity
Challenged Charlatan in a statement she released. In a
statement released on Sunday January 24th, Falana
had attempted to link Okonjo-Iweala to the $2.1 billion
scandal, calling for her arrest and prosecution.
Reacting to Okonjo-Iweala’s statement, Falana
yesterday in his own statement, accused her of being
quick to deflect criticisms by accusing anyone seeking
to hold her to account for her ‘appalling records’ in
government, of having ulterior political motives. The
statement in part reads
“When Prof Chukwuma Soludo alleged that about N30tr
could not be accounted for under her watch he was
described as “an embittered loser. When comrade
Adams Oshiomole questioned the illegal withdrawal of
$2bn from the Excess Crude Account, he was accused
of having animus towards her because she had blocked
Edo State from obtaining a loan.
Therefore, instead of exchanging vulgar abuse with the
former Minister I shall respond to the diversionary
allegations which lacerated her response and the
attempt to extricate herself from the mass looting of
the commonwealth under her watch.
The claim that I am unfamiliar with the mandate of the
ICC shows that Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala has not been
following the practice of the court and its active and
robust approach to its mandates, in particular with
regard to the investigation of crimes in Darfur, the
warrant of arrest for Joseph Kony (Uganda), and the
warrant of arrest for Ahmad Harun, (Sudan).
In many decided cases, the ICC has expanded its
mandate to humanitarian issues, aimed at forestalling
and impeding the perpetration of crimes which cause
gross human rights abuse. There is absolutely nothing
in the Rome Statute of the ICC to suggest that the
court cannot address impunity for enormous financial
crimes (and its crippling impact) which took place
while Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala was the Finance Minister and
the Coordinating Minister of the economy.
Dr. Okonjo-Iweala also claimed that my petition against
her to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission
(EFCC) “were lacking in credibility”, without any
substantiation of what this means or specific rebuttal
of the allegations contained in that petition. She has
however not denied the accuracy of the claims in my
petition. Whereas the former Finance Minister had
insisted that only $500 million was recovered from the
Abacha loot my petition detailed the recovery of $4
billion. As she could not challenge my claim Dr.
Okonjo-Iweala now says that the $500 million was the
amount recovered while she was the Minister of
Finance under President Obasanjo. In making that
claim she did not take cognizance of her recent
statement that while she gave out $322 million to Col.
Dasuki the sum of $700 million had been set aside for
development. From her own account, over $1 billion
was recovered from the loot under the Jonathan
regime when she was coordinating the economy.
Dr. Okonjo-Iweala has continued to give the erroneous
impression that she rendered selfless service to the
nation. But while her colleagues who served as
Ministers under President Olusegun Obasanjo were paid
their salaries and allowances in the local currency she
received hers in dollars despite a judgment of the
Court of Appeal which had declared the payment illegal
and unconstitutional in the case of Fawehinmi v The
President (2007) 14 NWLR (Pt 1054) 275. In order to
weep up sentiments Dr. Okonjo-Iweala referred to the
unfortunate kidnap of her 84-year mother, two years
ago. But it is public knowledge that the lumpen
elements involved in the kidnap were arrested by the
Lagos State Police Command.
From the report of police investigation the kidnappers
were palace guards who were inspired by sheer
avarice. In fact, they were arrested by the Police
following the disagreement over the sharing of the N12
million ransom paid to them for the criminal enterprise.
In the Appropriation Act of 2011, the sum of N245
billion was budgeted for fuel subsidy. But at the end of
the year, Dr. Okonjo-Iweala had authorized the illegal
payment of about N2.5 trillion to a cabal of fuel
importers. As usual, she washed off her hands like
Pontius Pilate. In order to unearth the monumental
fraud I petitioned the EFCC and gave or*l testimony
before the House of Representatives Committee which
separately investigated it.
In the same vein, I have just asked the Group
Managing Director of Nigerian National Petroleum
Corporation under the Freedom of Information Act to
provide information on the failure of the NNPC to pay
into the Federation Account the sum of $9.7 billion out
of the $11.8 billion dividends paid by NLNG from
2004-2014. I have equally demanded information from
the NEITI over its claim that the NNPC and some oil
companies are indebted to the Federal Government to
the tune of $19.1 billion. Dr. Okonjo-Iweala’s claim that
I own the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability
Project (SERAP) is far-fetched and laughable.
A simple google search would have shown her that
while I am one of the legal advisers of the
organization, there are other very distinguished lawyers
and academics of international repute on SERAP’s
board. Her claim that SERAP is ‘discredit’ is the exact
opposite of reckless characterization because it is an
organization that has won national and international
recognitions—including nomination for the UN civil
society award; the Ford Foundation Jubilee
Transparency Award; and the Wole Soyinka Anti-
Corruption Defender Award. It is my belief that the
recovered loot should be channeled towards job
creation and infrastructural development. Therefore, all
hands should be on deck to ensure that the recovered
loot is not criminally diverted by another set of
looters”the statement read.
Government sha..........
ReplyDelete