Former Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala’s secrets have been blown open by the Majority Leader of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila and Abdulmumin Jibrin, Member of the House of Representatives…
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala
“However, my hunch is that being an election year, members might have wanted several projects sited in their constituencies so that they could have something to campaign on It is wrong to portray that members were given money for passage of the budget.”
“I don’t think the former finance minister meant that the money was a bribe. I think it is the media that are insinuating that she bribed the lawmakers.”
“She said the Federal Government gave extra funding to the National Assembly. The media should look at the National Assembly budget for that year and see whether it was above N150bn before making insinuations.”
Abdulmumin Jibrin also revealed that… “As the chairman of House Committee on Finance during the period in question, I was never part of a meeting where such decision was made. I am not aware of any N17bn naira introduced in the 2014 budget for election expenses for members and I did not benefit from such money if at all it ever existed.”
“It is absolutely unfair of the former minister of finance to make such grievous allegation in a blanket manner. She should have named those that participated at the said meeting and received the money.”