Barely three days after her mother, Prof. Kamene
Okonjo, was freed, Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of
Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, disclosed that the kidnappers told the
octogenarian that the minister’s purported refusal to pay subsidy claims as
well as the non-release of the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme
(SURE-P) funds were the motives behind their heinous action.
The minister, who said the old woman’s freedom
from the abductors was miraculous, added that although she was denied food and
water for the five days she was in captivity, she was in excellent health.
Briefing journalists in Abuja, Okonjo-Iweala, who
described her mother as a very courageous woman, said while she was in their
custody, the woman had inquired from the kidnappers the motive behind the
ordeal they had subjected her to. The abductors, she said, had told her mother
in no uncertain terms that her daughter (the minister) had refused to pay
subsidy claims to marketers as well as blocked the release of funds accruing to
SURE-P.
To set the record straight, the minister noted
that nobody had stopped the payment of subsidy to marketers whose claims had
been verified by the Aig-Imoukhuede Committee, stressing that the insistence of
the Federal Government remained that only claims emanating from genuine transactions
and had been verified should be paid – a position she said Nigerians had also
championed.
On SURE-P, the minister stated that the programme
was a different process, under a special committee, which is not under her
control, adding that the Federal Government would continue to do what is right
and in the overall interest of Nigerians. “I can’t give all the details because
we don’t want to compromise ongoing investigations. “But I can tell you one
thing: My mother suffered a great deal during this ordeal. It was only the
Almighty God that rescued her from a situation that could very easily have
ended tragically.
