Strong reasons
emerged last night
to show that the
kidnap of Prof. Kaneme Okonjo,
mother of Finance Minister and
Coordinating Minister of the
Economy Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-
Iweala may have been geared
towards instilling fear into the
minister and distract her from
carrying out reforms in the
economy and the oil sector in
particular.
Reports that the kidnappers
have made contacts and
demanded $1 billion ransom are
clear pointers that the abduction
may well be connected to a
threat received by the minister
last month when she was told to
slow down on her thorough
check on subsidy payments or
face dire consequences.
Unconfirmed reports that the
abductors have contacted the
family and tabled a request of a
whopping one billion dollars
seem to weave a link between
the kidnapping and the
subsisting threat.
In his immediate reaction to the
incident, a Senior Special
Assistant to the Minister, Mr. Paul
Nwabuikwu, said in a statement,
"at this point, it is difficult to say
whether those behind this
action are the same people who
have made threats against the
coordinating minister in the
recent past or other elements
with hostile motives. No
possibility can be ruled out at
this point."
Okonjo-Iweala's mother who is
the wife of His Majesty, Professor
Chukwuka Aninshi Okonjo
Agbogidi, the Obi of Ogwashi-
Uku kingdom in Delta State, and
a professor of medicine, was
kidnapped on Sunday at about
1:30 pm from the husband's
palace at Ogbe-Ofu quarters in
Ogwahi-Uku by eight gunmen
who stormed the palace in two
Volkswagen Golf cars.
The demand for a $1billion
ransom, according to source,
was relayed to the family of the
woman yesterday, but this could
not be confirmed. In the wake of
the fuel subsidy scam, the
minister is known to have put
her feet down on thorough
scrutiny of claims by marketers
before payments will be made.
At the end of the day, the Federal
Government put the money
fraudulently paid to marketers in
the oil subsidy scam at N232.2
billion. Minister of Finance and
the Coordinating Minister for the
Economy, Dr. Okonjo-Iweala,
made the disclosure on Monday,
December 1 in Abuja at a press
conference held on the ways of
reinvigorating the country's
ailing capital market. According
to the minister, following the
submission of the report of the
Presidential Committee on the
Verification and Reconciliation
of Fuel Subsidy Payments
headed by Access Bank boss,
Aigboje Aig-Imokhuede, out of
the N1trillion claims verified, it
was established that
N232.2billion was paid to
fraudulent oil marketers.
Noting that N29 billion due to
the fraudulent marketers was
held back by the government,
the minister said the
government would begin the
payment of genuine claims
starting from December with a
view to averting man-made fuel
queues which have been on
since the issue of payments to
oil marketers cropped up within
the petroleum industry.
In the absence of political
abductions in this clime, the
tendency is that the minister
may well be seeing the
manifestation of the threats
issued her by disgruntled
elements whose fraudulent
means of feeding fat through
dipping hands into the public till
is being stopped.
The onus is on security agents
to unravel the abductors and
bring them to book.
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