Okonjo-Iweala reacts to reports that a court ordered her & others to account for missing N30trn
Former Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has reacted to reports
that went round last week that a court asked her to account for N30
trillion. A Federal High Court sitting in Lagos last week ordered her
and the Goodluck Jonathan led administration to account for N30
trillion missing or unaccounted for while they were in government (read
here).
Okonjo-Iweala says she's not gotten any court order and that the
report is politically motivated. Read her statement after the cut...
“Our attention has been drawn to media reports regarding a court
judgment alleged to have been entered against the federal government of
Nigeria and Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala in respect of an action by the
Socio-Economic Rights Agenda (SERAP) pursuant to the Freedom of
Information Act. The high court, according to the media reports, ordered
the Federal government and Dr. Okonjo-Iweala to provide information
relating to N30 trillion Naira allegedly unaccounted for. Dr
Okonjo-Iweala hastens to state that she was never served with any court
processes in relation to the said matter. She has not read the judgment
and would therefore defer any comments on the matter. However from the
media reports, the case was instituted in February 2015 but was not
served until July 2015 after Dr Okonjo-Iweala had already ceased to be
the Minister of Finance. By the date the said papers were purportedly
served Dr Okonjo-Iweala was no longer a public officer and could
therefore not be the subject of a request for production of any
documents or information under the Freedom of information Act. The court
processes must have been served on others because the attention of Dr
Okonjo-Iweala was never drawn to the matter in which she appears to have
been sued personally. She therefore did not engage any lawyer to act
for her in the matter. The decision of SERAP to anchor its case on a
baseless and unsubstantiated allegation by former CBN governor Professor
Charles Soludo that N30 trillion – about seven times the total annual
budget during the Jonathan administration – is missing confirms SERAP’s
dubious motives and its role as a tool for politically motivated actors.
It is curious that the first time Dr Okonjo-Iweala is being made aware
of a matter filed against her in court is in news reports reporting the
delivery of judgment. She has instructed her lawyers to take steps to
set aside the judgment as it affects her.”
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