I want to sit on the fence and allow the relevant authorities carryout their investigations regarding allegations of corruption levelled against the former president's daughter, Iyabo Bello-Obasanjo.
I think her defense is self explanatory.
"I know Prince Awofisayo. Sometime ago, he invited me to be part of a business he wanted to do. Some of these proposals work, other times they don’t. Prince said I should not worry, that he would fund the entire project. I told him since I was a commissioner, it could raise issues of conflict of interest. We agreed to go into the business all the same. Prince formed a company and did all the ground work. We agreed that I should use a different name, yes, because in law there is nothing wrong with that. Even the arbitration panel in Paris, on which a judge of the high court of England sat, agreed that legally, there was nothing wrong in that.
"The company put in bids for the power projects without any input from me. It went through a normal, transparent process. I didn’t even know anybody at NEPA, so I could not have influenced anything. The company won the contracts. It is true that I used a pseudonym. It was Prince Awofisayo who funded the whole project. I did not put in a penny and I did not receive a penny from it.
"The truth will come out someday. This is pure blackmail. Because their business relationship has gone bad now, they now want to drag me in an unnecessary controversy. This is unfair. They are trying to use the media to destroy me because I am Obasanjo’s daughter. Does it mean because I am Obasanjo’s daughter, I cannot do anything again in this country? I have worked hard all my life. I am a PhD holder by dint of hard work. Does it mean I cannot even do anything again in my life without people trying to make a big issue out of it?"
Friday, 21 December 2007
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