several interest groups as well as election monitors, who were expected to compromise the electoral process.
He said, “The MD said it was Diezani’s son that sent him a list of beneficiaries which included several INEC officials and election monitors across the 36 states. Diezani specifically instructed that the funds be disbursed at least a day or two before the elections. The total amount of money was $115m and Diezani told the bank to convert the funds into naira, which was about N23.3bn at the time.
“However, the suspects told us that the volume of money was too big and they had problems converting the funds. So, Diezani told the bank MD to use the bank’s funds and hold on to the dollars as collateral and that after elections, the bank could use the dollars to replace the bank funds.” The source stated that Diezani did not operate any account with the bank and wondered why Okonkwo would allow himself to be used in such a manner. “He may be charged with conspiracy once we are done with investigations,” the source said.
The PUNCH had reported that a wristwatch worth £600,000 was seized from Diezani during a raid on one of her houses. The ex-minister, who is currently battling cancer, was last year arrested by the National Crimes Agency in the United Kingdom for sundry allegations. Under her watch as one of former President Goodluck Jonathan’s most powerful ministers, dubious oil marketers stole trillions of naira of oil subsidy money.
The then Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi (now the Emir of Kano), alleged that $20bn was missing from the account of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, an allegation which led to his suspension and replacement. She had, however, denied all allegations of corruption levelled against her. The family lawyer, Oscar Onwudiwe, who had, in a
