Prof. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Director-General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), has recounted how her mother was abducted in December 2012 after she exposed an alleged $2.4 billion fuel subsidy fraud during her tenure as Nigeria’s Minister of Finance.
She said the investigation into the alleged fraud led to the refusal to pay questionable claims submitted by petrol importers, after which her mother, Kamene Okonjo, was kidnapped from her home in Ogwashi-Uku, Delta State.
In a recent interview with Bloomberg, the WTO boss disclosed that the abductors demanded that she resign as Minister of Finance and leave the country as a condition for her mother’s release.
Okonjo-Iweala served as Nigeria’s Minister of Finance between 2011 and 2015 under former President Goodluck Jonathan.
She explained that the subsidy investigation began after her office noticed a sharp increase in claims submitted by petrol importers, prompting her to seek the president’s approval to audit the accounts.
“So I went to the president and said, look, something is going on here. Could we audit the accounts? And he said, yes, go ahead.
“And we found about $2.4 billion worth of fraud. So, we refused to pay,” she recounted.
She said her mother was abducted shortly after the decision was announced, adding that her captors demanded her resignation as a condition for her release.
“I was told (by the kidnappers) that for her to be released, I should resign and leave the country,” she said.
The former minister described the incident as one of the most traumatic experiences of her life, revealing that her mother was held in a forest before eventually escaping.
“She was held in the middle of a forest, and one night she escaped. She’s still alive. She’s 96 now.
“It was a terrible, terrible five-day ordeal. I think the worst in my life,” Okonjo-Iweala said.
She further expressed shock that her parents could become targets of such an attack simply because she was doing what was in the overall interest of the country.
“I never dreamt my parents could ever be touched in this way, that people would be that evil,” she added.
Okonjo-Iweala said she considered resigning before her mother regained her freedom, but her father warned her against yielding to the abductors’ demands.
“He said, ‘We don’t give in to blackmail’. And he said, ‘You’ve got to carry on. You’ve got to go to work’,” she stated.
