Director-General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has recounted how her investigation into an alleged $2.4 billion fuel subsidy fraud in 2012 preceded the abduction of her mother.
Gatekeepers News reports that Okonjo-Iweala disclosed this during an interview with Bloomberg’s Francine Lacqua, saying the abductors demanded that she resign as Nigeria’s finance minister and leave the country in exchange for her mother’s release.
Okonjo-Iweala, who served as finance minister under former President Goodluck Jonathan between 2011 and 2015, said the investigation began after her office noticed a sharp increase in claims submitted by petrol importers under the federal government’s fuel subsidy programme.
She said she approached Jonathan to request an audit of the accounts, which he approved.
“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,” she said.
The former minister said her mother, Professor Kamene Okonjo, was abducted from her home in Ogwashi-Uku, Delta State, in December 2012, shortly after the disputed payments were withheld.
She said the kidnappers subsequently communicated their demands, insisting that she leave her position and Nigeria before her mother could be released.
“I was told (by the kidnappers) that for her to be released, I should resign and leave the country,” she said.
Okonjo-Iweala described the incident as one of the most traumatic experiences of her life, recalling that her mother was held in a forest for five days before escaping one night.
“She was held in the middle of a forest, and one night she escaped. She’s still alive. She’s 96 now,” she said.
The WTO chief said she considered resigning because of the fear that her mother might be killed, but her father advised her against giving in to the abductors’ demands.
“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’,” she recalled.
She said the experience left her deeply distressed, adding that she had never imagined that her parents could be targeted because of her official responsibilities.
“I never dreamt my parents could ever be touched in this way, that people would be that evil,” she said.
The abduction occurred amid controversy over Nigeria’s fuel subsidy payments, which faced intense scrutiny in 2012 over allegations of fraudulent claims by petroleum importers.
At the time, Okonjo-Iweala publicly linked her mother’s abduction to disputes over subsidy payments and funds under the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P). She said her mother had been told that the kidnapping was connected to her refusal to approve certain payments to oil marketers.
Kamene Okonjo was released on December 14, 2012, five days after she was abducted.
Okonjo-Iweala became WTO director-general in March 2021, becoming the first woman and the first African to lead the international trade organisation.
