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Monday, December 21, 2015

BUSTED: Okonjo-Iwela Fingered In N1.17bilion “Suspicious” Transfer

Yet again, the immediate past Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has been involved in another “Suspicious” Transfer discovered by the House of Representatives.

past Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala
The House of Representatives ad hoc committee is probing the “suspicious” transfer to another account of N1.17bilion approved for a Federal Government agency.
The committee claimed Okonjo-Iweala, reversed a presidential directive which approved the money for the Sokoto Rima River Basin Development Authority (SRRBA).
According to a report by Nation newspaper, President Goodluck Jonathan, in a letter, approved the release of the money to the River Basin Authority. The approval was conveyed to the Accountant General of the Federation (AGF) by the (then) minister of Finance, according to the office of the AGF.
The payment was made into the accounts of the SRRBDA on March 9 but withdrawn in two tranches within a week, two months later in May.
The first withdrawal of N784m was made on 6th May, 2015. The second, N90m, was effected on 12th May 2015 but executed on 16th May 2015 by the CBN.
Only N874.6million was withdrawn by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) from the account of SRRBDA because the agency had started spending the money, the paper is reporting.
“Conduct of post mortem after payments does not seem to promote transparency and accountability.
“We are interested in who applied for the withdrawal since payment was initiated through an application by the SRRBDA.
“More importantly, there is a need to know how a ministerial directive can override a presidential approval.
“We also want to know where the money was returned to after it was withdrawn from the account of the Authority.
“We are only interested in how to make agencies of government can be responsive to the people.
“This is an organisation that can bring a whole lot to the agricultural sector in that region and the country as a whole, yet through whatever what we are yet to understand, it was being deliberately starved of funds. We are determined to get to the bottom of the matter,” Evelyn Oboro, the head of the House committee said.

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