The allegation of money laudering against Nigeria”s Ambassador to the United States, Ade Adefuye, has refused to go away,as the\u00a0 Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday insisted the allegation\u00a0 was baseless.<\/p>\n
Adefuye is alleged to have used the accounts of the Embassy to move large cash around for rogue government officials in Nigeria.<\/p>\n
He was alleged to have made withdrawals of millions of dollars from the accounts.The dubious transactions, allegedly led to the closure of the accounts.<\/p>\n
The spokesman for the ministry, Mr Ogbole Ode, debunked the reports in a statement said“The Mission in Washington had stated several times that it never operated any accounts with Wells Fargo and the Bank of America.<\/p>\n
“Such accounts do not exist and could never have been frozen or closed.<\/p>\n
“The Vice President of the M & T Bank, Mr Peter Senica, where the mission maintains some accounts, has stated that those accounts were never frozen.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
The statement said the ministry regularly monitored the accounts of missions.<\/p>\n
It added that any report of financial irregularities were promptly investigated and dealt with in line with extant regulations and procedure.<\/p>\n
According to the statement, the Minister, Mr Olugbenga Ashiru, cannot be accused of any financial impropriety or linked to the alleged sale of the embassy\u2019s properties in 2004.<\/p>\n
It said the incident occurred eight years ago, and there had been five foreign ministers before Ashiru was appointed in July 2011.<\/p>\n
“The foreign minister has no control over budgetary allocations and disbursement of funds to missions abroad.”<\/p>\n
It explained that such budget was passed by the National Assembly and signed into law by the President.<\/p>\n
“The power and responsibility to directly remit funds to missions overseas are vested in the Federal Ministry of Finance.<\/p>\n
“Thereafter, missions administer their budgets as approved by law without reference to the Minister of Foreign Affairs,\u2019\u2019 it said.<\/p>\n
It stressed that “Ashiru, a thorough professional and a retired career diplomat of distinction, is not in any way, shape or form, connected to this case.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
Ashiru, had on Tuesday told the House Committee on Foreign Affairs that the embassy\u2019s account was not frozen.<\/p>\n
He said the embassy never had an account at the bank in question; hence the issue of closure did not arise.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The allegation of money laudering against Nigeria”s Ambassador to the United States, Ade Adefuye, has refused to go away,as the\u00a0 Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday insisted the allegation\u00a0 was…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":655,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n