ABACHA LOOT| Falana Suffering From Chronic Cerebral Amnesia – Ngozi Okonjo Iweala

Former Minister of Finance, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, on Monday accused Lagos law­yer, Mr. Femi Falana, of lack of depth of knowledge on the recovering of the Abacha loot and the workings of the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Okonjo-Iweala, who reacted to Falana’s petition against her to the ICC, said contrary to the law­yer’s stand, most of the funds recov­ered from the late head of state, Gen. Sani Abacha, took place during the regime of former head of state, Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar and the first term of ex-President Olusegun Oba­sanjo when she was not in govern­ment.

In a statement issued by her Me­dia Adviser, Mr. Paul Nwabuikwu, the former finance minister in the second term of the Obasanjo admin­istration, said $500 million was re­covered during her appointment and there was documented evidence by the World Bank, national and inter­national non-governmental organ­isations (NGOs) on how the mon­ey was used.

Falana had accused her of work­ing with former President Goodluck Jonathan to re-loot the money recov­ered from the one stolen by Abacha.

He claimed that Okonjo-Iwea­la illegally transferred the sum of $322 million and £5.5 million from the Abacha loot to the former Na­tional Security Adviser (NSA), Col. Sambo Dasuki, for prosecution of the war against terrorism.

Falana argued that the amounts were among the $2.1 billion meant for the acquisition of weapons for the military for the war against ter­rorism which was diverted.

But Okonjo-Iweala declared that the latest efforts of Falana to link her with the re-looting of the Abacha loot was meant to tarnish her world-acclaimed reputation and maintained that most of the Abacha loots were recovered while she was not in office and therefore she could not have been responsible for the misuse of the money.

Nwabuikwu said: “This latest effort to try to attack her (Okonjo-Iweala’s) name falsely confirms that Femi Falana is nothing but a tool of corrupt elements whose interests were hurt by the work Dr Okonjo-Iweala did in fighting corruption while she was in office.

“These elements have now made a habit of making false alle­gations against Dr Okonjo-Iweala whenever she receives any national or international recognition for her work. The pattern is clear and Ni­gerians should be alert to it. But Dr Okonjo-Iweala will not be intimi­dated from going on with her life and performing her duties. She will not give in to cowardly and unman­ly bullying.

“Falana’s latest attempt to impli­cate Dr Okonjo-Iweala falsely sug­gests that he is suffering from an ailment that may be described as Chronic Cerebral Amnesia (CCA) because he simply has no grasp of the facts,” he said.

While stating the facts from the former minister’s points of view, he said contrary to Falana’s claim, “Dr Okonjo-Iweala has absolutely noth­ing to do with the alleged misuse of $2.1 billion by the office of the for­mer National Security Adviser, as vindicated by her memo of January 20, 2015.”

He stressed that Okonjo-Iweala championed transparency and vig­orously fought corruption during her two terms as minister. He cit­ed the kidnap of Professor Kamene Okonjo, the then 83-year-old moth­er of Dr Okonjo-Iweala by agents of fuel subsidy fraudsters who were angry that the former minister had blocked them from further defraud­ing of the country.