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Paul Nwabuikwu, the Media Adviser to the immediate past Minister of Finance, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has debunked reports that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) was investigating the former minister.
Nwabuikwu said:
“We want to clarify that some of the media reports alleging that the EFCC is investigating former Minister of Finance, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, are 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 added that the headlines are a misrepresentation of what the EFCC Chairman actually said during the event saying while the headlines claimed that the EFCC Chairman, in response to a question by an APC, member Hon 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 that Magu’s words were:
“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…”
According to Okonjo- Iweala’s media aid, 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.
He therefore noted that the Nigerian media must play an important role in our democracy, urging them to be fair, balanced and factual in their reports.
SEE: EFCC investigating Okonjo-Iweala, Alison-Madueke