SAN FRANCISCO, December 09, (THEWILL) – Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State Wednesday said the immediate past Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, must be invited to say what she knows about the disbursement of funds meant for the purchase of arms and ammunition under the Goodluck Jonathan administration if ongoing investigation into the matter must be complete.
Speaking with newsmen in Abuja after meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the State House , the Edo governor expressed shock by revelations from the ongoing prosecution of former National Security Adviser, Ibrahim Dasuki, saying what had been revealed may just be a tip of the iceberg.
Oshiomhole said: ”I am shocked. I have been talking about it, I just said to a couple of persons, the government have to go the whole hog, because I know as a governor that no money gets out of the Treasury even after I have approved as the governor without the approval of the commissioner of finance.
“That is the procedure, so the probe should go into whether all these monies are appropriated, all of it, when the money got out of the Treasury through who?
“The Minister of Finance under the rules must endorse before money gets out of the Treasury before CBN approves. Those Minister of Finance, including Okonjo – Iweala, I don’t care what people say, because you cannot be coordinating a corruption-ridden economy and you pretend to be an angel, you cannot selectively deal with issues, you must deal with all involved in the conspiracy, in criminal law when two to three people are involved in a act of criminality, all of them are charged with conspiracy.
“You cannot get money out of the Treasury without getting it endorsed and for a government that talks about transparency, due process and I am unable to accept that money will come out without the Minister of Finance having to endorse document and if you endure documents, you must follow through to see that the purpose through which funds are released are actually used for that purpose.
“The NSA is supposed to be an advisory officer, he is not supposed to be a procurement agent for government. I am happy the figures are coming out and I know that this is a tip of the iceberg and I read some reports, the numbers are in billions.
“Dasuki is just one bleeding point, there are several bleeding points in the system, you look at the total number of expenditure on subsidy which the World Bank had released figures just now, about how many trillions of Naira over the past four to five years, now you lay your hands on the various appropriation bills passed by the National Assembly and see how much the National Assembly appropriated for subsidy for all those periods, you will find they are not even up to half of what was spent. Which means money not appropriated for was spent. If people are involved in those acts they must be brought to justice.”
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