Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the Director-General of the World Trade Organisation, WTO, has recalled how her investigation into an alleged $2.4bn fuel subsidy fraud in Nigeria led her mother’s kidnapping.
Read Also: Okonjo-Iweala’s mother, 82, kidnapped
Okonjo-Iweala narrated her experience in an interview with Bloomberg’s Francine Lacqua. She said the kidnappers’ demands were that she resigns as the Minister of Finance and leave the country.
On how the ordeal began, she said her office noticed a sharp increase in subsidy claims, so she began to probe.
Her words: “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.”
That was when they took her mother. Okonjo-Iweala said the five-day ordeal was among the most painful periods of her life.
“I was told (by the kidnappers) that for her to be released, I should resign and leave the country.
“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,” she said.
Okonjo-Iweala said initially she felt paralysed by fear and considered resigning. She added that that the experience left her with a sense of guilt that she still carries.
“I never dreamt my parents could ever be touched in this way, that people would be that evil,” she said.
On her father’s reaction at the time, she said: “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’.”
Okonjo-Iweala served as Minister of Finance under President Goodluck Jonathan. Her mother, Kamene Okonjo, was kidnapped from her home in Ogwashi-Uku, Delta State, in December 2012. Read the kidnap story HERE.
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