The former minister also addressed the
allegation that she rented N10 million jet for personal purposes during
her tenure as a minister.
The former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke,
has dispelled all the allegations of embezzlement levied against her,
stating she at no point in the course of duty as a Minister stole from
Nigeria.
In a recent interview with ThisDay,
Allison-Madueke, acknowledged that mistakes were made, but was quick to
add that she had nothing to do with the missing $20 billion or $18.5
billion in the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) coffers.
She said, “did we make mistakes? There would
always be mistakes. People would always make mistakes. Everybody make
mistakes and there is no question about that. Have we learnt from our
mistakes? Of course we have.
“But please do not say I stole $20 billion or
$18.5 billion because I did not at any point in time. And if NNPC
misappropriated funds or so, they have the entire explanation and more
forensic audit should be done to determine how and why. But people
should not make damaging accusations which have nothing to do with an
individual.
“At no point did I steal from the Nigerian state.
And if NNPC misappropriated funds or so, they have the entire
explanation and more forensic audit should be done to determine how and
why. But people should not make damaging accusations which have nothing
to do with an individual. At no point did I steal from the Nigerian
state.
“In fact, the first mantra I had from the time I
came in was that I will never touch anything that has to do with the
Federation Account and I never did and I will take that to my grave. So I
will suggest that this issue of $20 billion or $18 billion be dropped
because that is the major problem I had with my job. I was accused of
unsavoury things, but which were actually accusations against NNPC and
the audit was deployed to clarify all these things.
“So let us deal with the issues. I have never
gone around accusing people of doing this or that, I have always stuck
with the issues even when I was the most abused minister, I was
professional, I stuck to the issues and responded only to the issues.”
The former minister, who is reportedly to be undergoing treatment for breast cancer in London, also addressed the allegation that she rented N10 million jet for personal purposes during her tenure as a minister.
She said that she never used the jet for personal use, but rather official activities.
“No it was not for my personal use, it was for
executive movement, which is has always been the case. I am saying just
like the $20 billion, you find something, you throw it on the person to
feel smart or to make it look as if the person is junketing all over the
place or as if nobody had done that before in the annals of the NNPC.
“Of course we were not junketing all over the
place. To be very honest, if they had never done that contract to lease
the jet, we would have been hiring at a higher cost and which probably
would have caused less of an issue. But to be frank, the lease that was
put in place, to the best of my knowledge, was done with a company which
even Shell and others have been using. So there was a known company
with a very good track record and was being used in the industry by
other multinationals,” Madueke added.
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