Arms Deal Scandal: Jonathan Approved Transfer of $322m to Dasuki – Okonjo Iweala
Posted by admin | 8 years ago | 4,743 times
Nigeria’s former finance minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has stated that a committee set up by former president Goodluck Jonathan, approved transfer of $322m to ex NSA Sambo Dasuki for use.
The ex-minister, in a statement by her Media Adviser, Mr. Paul Nwabuikwu, said the transfer of the fund was approved after a committee, set up by former President Goodluck Jonathan, gave approval for the use of the fund.
“It will be recalled that throughout 2014, there were public complaints by the military hierarchy to President Goodluck Jonathan about the inadequacy of funds to fight the anti-terror war in the North-East, resulting in Boko Haram making gains and even taking territories.
“A lot of the criticism was directed at the Federal Ministry of Finance under Dr Okonjo-Iweala, which was accused of not doing enough to find funds for the operations.”
She added, “It was about this time that some new Abacha funds of about $322m were returned with another $700m still expected to be returned.
“Former President Jonathan set up a committee, comprising the former Minister of Justice, former NSA and the former Minister of Finance to determine how best to use both the returned and expected funds for development.
“The NSA made a case for using the returned funds for urgent security operations, since, she noted, there could not be any development without peace and security.
“Based on this, a decision was taken to deploy about $322m for the military operations, while the expected $700m would be applied to development programmes as originally conceived.
“Following the discussions and based on the urgency of the NSA’s memo, Dr Okonjo-Iweala requested the President to approve the transfer of the requested amount to the NSA’s Office for the specified purposes.”
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