Okonjo-Iweala denies reports of EFCC planned probe

Former Finance Minister, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has said she was not mentioned as part of the ministers under investigation by the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) Ibrahim Magu at the budget defence on Monday.

A statement from her spokesman Paul Nwabuikwu said some of the media reports alleging that the EFCC was investigating Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, were misleading and untrue.

'This is clear from eye witness accounts of the Budget 2016 presentation by the EFCC at the House of Representatives and gaps in the reported stories,” he said in a statement.

'While some headlines claimed that the EFCC Chairman, in response to a question by an APC member Razak Atunwa, stated that Dr Okonjo-Iweala is under investigation, the actual words quoted in the same reports told a very different story.'

He said: 'Very soon we will go into the petroleum industry. Such investigation requires that we have to build capacity, we have to bring in experts to enable us tackle what we are doing properly and the investigation must be conducted properly. We have internal lawyers and external lawyers. We have to pay insurance…'

The words said to have been spoken by the EFCC Chairman cannot support the lurid headlines that Dr Okonjo-Iweala is under investigation by the EFCC.

The ex-minister urged the Nigerian media who she said 'plays an important role in our democracy' to 'be fair, balanced and factual in their reports.”