Amina Mohammed, United Nations Deputy Secretary-General and former Nigeria Minister of Environment has denied involvement in 300million dollars rosewood export scandal.
Amina Mohammed
The Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), a Non-Governmental Organisation, which specialises in investigating environmental crimes, has accused Amina Mohammed of benefitting from signing thousands of allegedly backdated permits in January 2017 which it said were used to clear illegal rosewood exports to China.
The environmental agency had reported that over 1.4 million illegal rosewood logs from Nigeria, worth $300 million, were detained at the ports in China in 2016 but were released after the presentation of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) certificates signed by her.
However, she has refuted the allegation: “No permits were backdated or illegally signed by me. We are therefore appalled if any legally obtained or forged certificates were used by unscrupulous rosewood traders to circumvent exportation procedures.”
“Not only do I decry fraud and corruption, we also categorically reject any allegations of corruption or coercion in our effort to better address illegal logging and exportation.”
“I categorically deny receiving any bribe. It has never been in my character. I never demanded neither did I collect any bribe, either cash or material.”
“When I was appointed Minister of Environment in November 2015, one of the first issues I had to deal with was deforestation. It was a huge concern as Nigeria was losing its forest cover at an alarming rate. For me, protecting the environment is sacrosanct. When I was minister, one of my first acts was to tackle illegal logging. What I found on ground was alarming.”