#BBB NEWS| Dasukigate: ICC To Hear Petition Against Dasuki, Iweala, Others Over Alleged Crimes Against Humanity

The ICC revealed this in a letter dated 1 February 2016 with reference: OTP-CR-32/16 and signed by Mark P. Dillon, Head of Information & Evidence Unit of the ICC.

The letter reads in part: “The Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court acknowledges receipt of your documents/letter. This communication has been duly entered in the Communications Register of the Office. We will give consideration to this communication, as appropriate, in accordance with the provisions of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.”

It would be recalled that Falana had in a petition dated 19 January 2016 requested the ICC to “investigate allegations of crimes against humanity committed against the Nigerian people by some former and serving military as well public officials and private persons who engaged in the criminal diversion of $8 billion earmarked to procure equipment for the armed forces to fight insurgency”

#BBB NEWS| Abacha Loot: Nigerian Activists Demand Prosecution Of Ex-Minister, Okonjo-Iweala

One of Nigeria’s most prominent anti-corruption coalitions, the Civil Society Network Against Corruption (CSNAC), has urged the chairman, Code of Conduct Bureau to immediately prosecute the immediate past Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, for “abuse of office and contravention of institutionalised procedures for public office holders while in office”.

In a petition to the Bureau, signed by its chairman, Olanrewaju Suraju, the coalition criticised the illegal manner the former coordinating minister of the economy allegedly disbursed funds recovered from late Sanni Abacha.

The group also accused the former minister of having misled Nigerians with false information on the utilization of the said fund.

“In the past weeks, Nigerians have been inundated with revelations of how the former National Security Adviser Sambo Dasuki misappropriated the sum of $300million and £5.5 million which was meant for the purchase of arms and ammunition to enable the military combat the insurgency orchestrated by Boko Haram,” Mr. Suraju said.

#BBB NEWS| Ex-Nigeria Finance Minister Okonjo-Iweala Confesses: I Paid Dasuki $322m From Abacha Loot

Former Minister of Finance Ngozi Okonjo Iweala yesterday said she had paid former National Security Adviser to the President, Col Sambo Dasuki (rtd) $322m (about N63billion) from recovered Abacha funds to finance military operations.

She was reacting to online media reports that accused her of illegally diverting the Abacha funds to the office of the former NSA. The money was returned to Nigeria in January 2015.

The statement signed by her Media Adviser, Paul C Nwabuikwu, said the attempt to link the former minister to any misuse of the funds for any purpose other than security was baseless.

She explained that  based on a request by Dasuki, former president Goodluck Jonathan set up a committee comprising of the former Minister of Justice, the former NSA and herself to determine how best to use both the returned and expected funds for development.

#BBB NEWS| Ambassador Adefuye: A Dedicated, Sterling Patriot - Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala

I received the news of the passing of Ambassador Ade Adefuye with great sadness. He and my husband developed a warm friendship in Washington. (pictured above) Late Ambassador Ade Adefuye in suit

He was a very dedicated and hardworking man who represented the country with sterling patriotism and passion.

Ambassador Adefuye was much respected in the diplomatic community for his strong intellect and deep knowledge of Nigeria and Africa.

I interacted closely with him in the course of my job as Minister of Finance and I saw firsthand his dedication to the task of helping diplomats and investors understand Nigeria and appreciate the country's many positives. He participated robustly in many sessions with investors especially on infrastructure and agriculture financing.

#BBB NEWS| Former Finance Minister Okonjo Iweala’s Family To Open Multi-Million Dollar Hospital In Abuja [PHOTO]

The husband and son of immediate past Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, are set to open a multi-million dollar hospital in the Gwarimpa area of Abuja, Nigeria’s capital.

Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala’s husband, Ikemba Iweala, and their son, Uchechi Iweala, are teaming up to establish the Capital Health and Surgical Care Center in Abuja. Both men, who are medical doctors, will serve as chairman of the board and medical director respectively at the medical facility described as state of the art.

The hospital was originally to be formally opened last June by former President Goodluck Jonathan, on the assumption that he would be reelected. Mr. Jonathan’s defeat froze the idea.

Information available on the hospital’s website, http://www.chscnigeria.com/home/page?id=Press, states that the hospital “is conceived to improvetertiary-level healthcare delivery in Nigeria and Greater West Africa by providing top-rate service of international standard.” The hospital, which has been quietly under construction and development in the last three years, is equipped with 50 beds, three operating rooms, Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), and CT scan.

#BBB NEWS| Between Adams Oshimhole And Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala By Is’haq Modibbo Kawu

One of the more defining aspects of the new culture of change in Nigeria is taking place right before our eyes today, in the enduring and intense debate on the state of Nigeria’s finances, especially under the Goodluck Jonathan presidency.

The protagonists are remarkable representatives of the two sides of the Nigerian coin.

Adams Oshimhole, governor of Edo state is pitted against Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the Jonathan presidency’s Minister of Finance, whose over-bloated ego had to be thoroughly massaged with the additional title of Coordinating Minister for the Economy.

Oshiomhole is a street-wise, former leader of the Nigerian working class movement, who fought many battles on the shop floor and in the streets, against exploitative and stubborn employers of labour in the textile industry, which in its halcyon days, employed thousands of workers, especially in Northern Nigeria, where Adams cut his teeth as workers’ tribune and leader. He then led the Nigerian working people in bruising battles as a reactionary Nigerian government, especially after 1999, became wedded to the orthodoxy of neo-liberal capitalism and the notorious Washington Consensus.

#BBB NEWS| Okonjo-Iweala Released $1bn Govt Funds For Jonathan’s Re-election – Oshiomhole

The Edo State Governor, Adams Oshiomhole, has accused the former Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, of tampering with $1bn from the Federation Account, which he claimed was used “for election purposes.”

Oshiomhole, who disclosed this on Monday at a seminar organised by the state government for permanent secretaries, directors and deputy directors on enhancing internally generated revenue in the state, challenged the former minister to tell Nigerians how the Excess Crude Account was drawn down to $4.1bn from the peak of $10bn, when no approval was given by the National Economic Council for any withdrawals.

He also called for a forensic audit to determine the true amount which he said was illegally spent from the Federation Account under her watch as a minister.

#BBB NEWS| 2 Billion Excess Crude Cashout: Okonjo-Iweala Shifts; Says Jonathan Unilaterally Approved Withdrawal

The immediate past Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has shifted the blame on former President Goodluck Jonathan over the controversial withdrawal of $2bn from the excess crude revenue account (ECA) in December 2014.

“Payments made were used for paying for petroleum subsidies for the Nigerian people and were approved by Mr. President,” the former minister said on Tuesday through her media adviser, Paul Nwabuikwu. “Therefore, there is no question of mismanaging any resources here.”

Following an allegation by the Edo State governor, Adams Oshiomhole, that she unilaterally approved the withdrawal of the money from the $4.1 bn left in the ECA “without authorization”, Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala had dismissed it as “false, malicious and totally without foundation.”

“We want to state categorically that no unauthorized expenditure from the ECA was made under Okonjo-Iweala’s watch in the Finance Ministry,” Mr. Nwabuikwu said in a statement.

#BBB NEWS| Jonathan, Okonjo-Iweala Mismanaged ECA Funds – FRC Boss

Raymond Omachi, the acting chairman of Fiscal Responsibility Commission (FRC) has stated that the past administration led by Goodluck Jonathan and its Finance Minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala mismanaged funds in the Excess Crude Account (ECA).

Although Omachi did not mention names, he frowned at the practice of the federal government to pay subsidy from the ECA or to share to states from the ECA when available funds are not adequate to meet revenue projections.

He said that the ECA was established in 2004 to protect planned budget against shortfalls due to volatile crude oil prices, but that was not how the funds from the account were spent today.

“If the ECA had been properly managed, in accordance with the FRC act, the country will not have been embroiled in the liquidity crisis being presently experienced,” he said on Sunday in Abuja during an interactive session with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).

#BBB NEWS| Okonjo-Iweala And Allison-Madueke Summoned To Senate For Fuel Crisis

A Senate Joint Committees on Petroleum Resources (the Upstream Committee and the Downstream Committee) statement on Friday summoned the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, and the Minister of Petroleum Diezani Allison-Madueke, to appear on Monday to discuss the biting fuel scarcity in the country.

The Joint Committee also extended a summons to the Group Managing Director of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, the Managing Director Petroleum Pricing, the Regulatory Agency; and the Director of the Department of Petroleum Resources to appear before them to contribute to the discussion.

Okonjo-Iweala and Madueke are expected to speak to the Committee addressing the causes behind lingering fuel scarcity, which has brought on untold hardship for many Nigerians.

The Joint Committee statement issued in Abuja, by Committee Chairmen, Senators Emmanuel Paulker (Upstream) and Magnus Abe (Downstream), explained that the invitation to Okonjo-Iweala and Madueke was as a result of the assignment given to them by the Senate to investigate the fuel crisis thoroughly.

#BBB NEWS| Nigeria Governors’ Forum Turns Against Okonjo-Iweala, Demand Explanation For Missing $20 Billion

Governors attending Nigeria’s Governors’ Forum took aim at Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, in a statement released from the proceedings today. The Forum, presided over by its Chairman Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State, was held at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel in Abuja.

The statement expressed outrage, questioned her integrity, and demanded that she give an explanation regarding the missing $20 billion from the state coffers.

The Governors’ Forum statement is the latest development centered on the controversial PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC) audit of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), which was spurred by Lamido Sanusi exposing to the public the missing money. Sanusi, now the Emir of Kano, was sacked by President Jonathan for blowing the whistle on the mission $20 billion.

Governor Amaechi demanded action from Okonjo-Iweala on the missing money in a statement that “In the light of the facts that funds in the Excess Crude Account were last disbursed in May 2013, there is need for the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala to provide explanations for accruals to this account from June 2013 to April 2015 which is estimated at over $20billion."

#BBB NEWS| Missing $20bn: Okonjo-Iweala Disowns Pricewaterhousecoopers

Nigeria’s Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has distanced herself from the audit firm, PriceWatersHouseCoopers, saying she should not be held responsible for its hiring to probe Nigeria’s alleged missing oil money, days after a widely-discredited report by PwC was released.

As finance minister and coordinator of the economy, Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala played a leading role in 2014 when PwC as hired, as the government tried to counter an allegation that $20 billion oil money had been stolen.

Former Central Bank governor, Lamido Sanusi, who made the claim, accused the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC of diverting the money.

After efforts by the government and the Senate to reconcile the sum yielded no tangible results, Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala recommended an independent forensic audit. She later announced the hiring of PriceWaterHouseCoopers.