Former Minister of Finance Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has responded
to gossips that she's purportedly being investigated by the EFCC for misappropriation,
calling media headlines deceptive and untrue. Her report below..
We want to clarify that some of the media reports alleging that
the EFCC is investigating former Minister of Finance, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala,
are misleading and untrue. This is clear from eye witness accounts of the
Budget 2016 presentation by the EFCC at the House of Representatives and gaps
in the reported stories.
The
headlines are a misrepresentation of what the EFCC Chairman actually said
during the event. While the headlines claimed that the EFCC Chairman, in
response to a question by an APC, member Hon Razak Atunwa, stated that Dr
Okonjo-Iweala is under investigation, the actual words quoted in the same
reports told a very different story.
His
words: “Very soon we will go into the petroleum industry. Such investigation
requires that we have to build capacity, we have to bring in experts to enable
us tackle what we are doing properly and the investigation must be conducted
properly. We have internal lawyers and external lawyers. We have to pay
insurance…”
The
words said to have been spoken by the EFCC Chairman cannot support the lurid
headlines that Dr Okonjo-Iweala is under investigation by the EFCC. The
Nigerian media plays an important role in our democracy and we urge them to be
fair, balanced and factual in their reports.
Paul
C Nwabuikwu Media Adviser to Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala
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