Ahmed Joda, the chairman of President Muhammadu Buhari’s transition committee, says Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, former minister of finance, might never be found guilty of corruption.
Joda said this to journalists in Yola, the capital city of Adamawa state, on Tuesday.
He said that while Okonjo-Iweala knew of the shady activities going on, she always sought the approval of Goodluck Jonathan, the former president, thereby protecting herself from prosecution.
Joda said it was alarming that Okonjo-Iweala knew about the spate of corruption going on during the past regime, but held onto her job, presiding over fraudulent withdrawals from the economy.
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“Okonjo-Iweala is a professional and she guarded herself. Whenever, they said this happened, she was able to produce papers to say, ‘Look, we had a meeting presided over by the president and attended by the national security adviser and others’.
“And she would go back and write the president and say, ‘I have received a request to release so many billions in accordance with our minutes. Your Excellency, if you will approve.’ And His Excellency would approve it. So, she covered herself, thus you can’t pin anything on her.”
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6 comments
She be omo-ibo. She no come help herself.
She’s a professor
As a professional, conscious of these fraudulent financial practices , ought to resign her appointment. By not resigning, she is not only an accomplice but also culpable; and should be tried for professional misconduct…period.
Mr Joba and cohorts are all aware that you people have been looking for opportunity to tarnish a highly earned image of NOI, kontnu all of you shall keep awake in vain.
Of she is a super trained individual and she is smarter than all of you.
Some ministers are complaining about Buhari’s high handedness but how many have resigned? It might be easy to quickly blame Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala (NOI) but why call her a professional if you believe she abetted corruption? The truth is that she’s part of the economic planning team and also disburses after appropriation. Corruption occurs at the execution end of policies after resources had been deployed. Nigerians love shadow boxing. The institutions meant to monitor compliance such as NASS, EFCC, ICPC, Police, CCB etc all failed to perform their constitutional responsibilities. It’s not the President’s duty to prosecute or NOI’s duty to call corrupt politicians to order.
Nigeria has become a land of witchhaunt.Hon men like Joda never spoke came forward b4 so why now.Respected gentlemen should remain so else kids might drag them around for dead rodents.Okonjo Iweala should let be.