The Nigeria's Ambassador to the United States of America, Professor Adebowale Adefuye, has denied the allegation that his leadership at the Nigerian Embassy in Washington, DC was involved in an alleged stealing of $23.5 million which were the proceeds realized from the sale of properties belonging to the government in America.
Our correspondent in New York gathered that Adefuye only met $10 Million in the Embassy's account during the time he was resuming as the Head of the Mission. This is contrary to reports in some newspapers (LEADERSHIP was not among) that the Ambassador inherited and mismanaged the total sum of $23.5 Million when he got to the United States
Acting on a petition recently sent by the Transform Nigeria Citizen Initiative, led by a London-based Nigerian, Daniel Elombah, the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations had last week summoned the trio of Ambassador Ade Adefuye, Ambassador George Obiozor, a former Ambassador of Nigeria to the United States and Prof. Joy Ogwu, the current Nigerian Permanent Representative to the United Nations, to appear before it in order to give their individual accounts and roles in the spending of the missing funds.
While Professor Joy Ogwu was the Minister for Foreign Affairs at the time of the controversial sales of the said properties, Ambassador George Obiozor was then the Nigeria's Ambassador to the United States. Professor Adefuye assumed duties in Washington, DC in 2010, few years after the sales.
Ambassador Adefuye told journalists that he was not involved in the unauthorized spending of proceeds totaling $23.5 million realized from the sale of properties belonging to the government of the federal republic of Nigeria.
His words: "The claims that i spent $23.5 million was exaggerated because what i met in the account of the Embassy when i resumed as the Ambassador of Nigeria to the United States was only $10 million.
"Operations at the Embassy in Washington, D.C were poorly funded as it was only receiving about $200,000 of its monthly entitlement of $600,000, and in order to meet the financial obligations, i got presidential authorizations to make up for the shortfall from the $10 million in its accounts.
"I think it is ungodly and wicked to be accused of fraud despite my patriotism to the nation even after the fraudulent clique that stole the country’s money remains free from official scrutiny"
Meanwhile, Nigerians in the United States are criticizing the fact that the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs granted audience in a case that a competent court of law in the United States had already heard and ruled against, Mr. Emeka Ugwonye, a Maryland-based lawyer and a former attorney of the Nigerian Embassy who had last year staged a protest against the leadership of the Embassy.
Mr. Franklin Ekechukwu, a member of the Board of the Nigerians in the Diaspora Organisation in the Americas, argued that apart of the US court's ruling against Mr. Ugwonye, the address which the Transform Nigeria Citizen Initiative, led by Mr. Daniel Elombah, has been using in all its correspondence was fake as it did not exist in the United States.
During the judgement which was pronounced on Tuesday, April 23, 2013, Judge Barbara J. Rothstein established the fact that the character behind Elombah's campaign and the suit by Mr. Emeka Ugwonye were guilty of theft, stressing that Mr. Emeka Ugwonye's law firm had not responded to court orders to provide an attorney to separately defend the case against it.
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