Missing $700m: Governor Oshiomhole Slams GEJ, Okonjo

The altercations between Adams Oshiomhole, the Edo state governor and the erstwhile minister of
finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala which seemed to have doused for a while has been fired up again with the comrade throwing another jibe this time involving the former president, Goodluck Jonathan.
According to Vanguard report, Governor Oshiomhole who happens to be the chairman, National Economic Council (NEC) adhoc committee on the management of excess crude and related federation account issue is insisting that Jonathan and his former minister have a case to answer as to the whereabouts of the $700 million withdrawn from the $1 billion belonging to the Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWF).
He noted this in Abuja on Thursday, September 17, after a private meeting with the vice president, Yemi Osinbajo at the presidential villa.
The comrade said that there was no truth in the defence put up by the former minister that the money was used to finance the second Niger bridge and partially in Kaduna-Abuja rail.
The governor said that the aim of the NEC subcommittee in the probe into the financial dealings of the past administration is to re-establish the culture of transparency and accountability in public office and not a personal thing.
Governor Oshiomhole said: “When I reported to the media that the sovereign wealth people in their report told us, which I have in black and white, clearly that they have only $300 million left in the Sovereign Wealth Fund account they tried to deny it.
“We have it in black and white and I can publish it if anybody wants to deny that because it was not submitted to me secretly. It was submitted at plenary of the committee.
“And then we asked, because I knew that the fund was $1 billion, what was done with $700 million? And they said they have made some investments.
“We asked them what they invested in and they said the second Niger bridge and partially in Kaduna-Abuja rail. That is what they said and I was not alone there.
“We were about five governors and it was a full plenary. But we know that the Kaduna-Abuja rail was funded with Chinese loan, which even Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala spoke about, when they said the loan from China was not used for Lagos, she said it was for Kaduna-Abuja.’’
The subcommittee also had the Gombe state governor, Alhaji Ibrahim Dankwambo; Kaduna state governor, Mallam El Rufai; Akwa Ibom state governor, Emmanuel Udom and Lagos state governor, Akinwunmi Ambode in the plenary.
The NEC had also reported after its meeting that it discovered that most government revenue generating agencies like the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) were reckless in their financial management under the previous administration.
Elder Godsay Peter Orubebe recently slammed Governor Oshiomhole of for his inciting statement against former president Goodluck Jonathan describing the comrade as a “villa sycophant” who is willing to switch allegiance to anyone is in power.
According to him, his government was forced to secure a loan of $75million from the World Bank because of the former President Jonathan’s looting