‘Don’t Give In To Blackmail’ — How My Father Stopped Me From Resigning After My Mother’s Kidnap — Okonjo-Iweala

Director-General of WTO, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has revealed how her father, late Prof. Chukwuka Okonjo, stopped her from resigning as Finance Minister after her mother, Prof. Kamene Okonjo, was kidnapped in Ogwashi-Uku, Delta State, in December 2012.

In an interview with Bloomberg’s Francine Lacqua on The Leaders programme, Okonjo-Iweala said the kidnap was in retaliation for her refusal to pay $2.4bn fraudulent fuel subsidy claims.

“I went to President Jonathan and said something is going on here. Can we audit? He said yes, go ahead. We found $2.4bn worth of fraud. So we refused to pay,” she said.

She said kidnappers demanded she resign and leave Nigeria.

“I was told for her to be released, I should resign and leave the country,” she recalled.

Okonjo-Iweala said her 82-year-old mother at the time was held for five days inside a forest before escaping.”She’s still alive. She’s 96 now,” the WTO chief said.

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She described it as the worst ordeal of her life, saying she considered resigning but her father insisted: “We don’t give in to blackmail. You’ve got to carry on. You’ve got to go to work.”

Prof Kamene Okonjo is mother of Obi of Ogwashi-Uku.