The Special Assistant to Mr. President on Justice Reform and International Relation, Mrs. Juliet Ibekaku-Nwagwu, has denied media reports that she was indicted or benefited from corrupt funds to the Federal Ministry of Justice in 2011.
In a statement signed by her lawyer, Atuegwu Okafor Esq and made available to Daily Trust last week in Abuja, Nwagwu debunked the report from an online media as “unequivocally false and misleading.”
She said the EFCC is yet to inform her of how she benefited personally from the funds and why her name was mentioned in a document that “does not reflect the work she did for the Federal Ministry of Justice”.
“It is important to put on record that Mrs. Ibekaku-Nwagwu was only an Adviser to the Federal Ministry of Justice on Justice Reform in 2011 as she was on leave of absence from EFCC, her primary place of assignment. She was also providing support through the British High Commission to the Federal Ministry of Justice.
“She was never a staff of the Ministry of Justice. All her work was geared towards providing training to various departments in the Federal Ministry of Justice. She was also tasked with developing Justice Reform Plans for the Federal Ministry of Justice. She never had any approving or accounting role and therefore could not have benefitted from any fund personally,” her lawyer said.
She said the Sahara Reporters also falsely stated that the Honourable Justice Funmilayo A. Ajayi of the Federal High Court Benin in Suit No. FHC/B/CS/103/2018 indicted her in November 2019.
“Mrs. Ibekaku-Nwagwu was not a party to the said suit and at no point was she indicted by the Court. We have read through the record of proceedings and Judgement of the court and nowhere was Mrs. Ibekaku Nwagwu mentioned in the whole process.
“The issue of responding to Freedom of Information (FoI) requests is the responsibility of the FoI Unit of the Federal Ministry of Justice which they have executed based on the order of the court. At no point was Mrs Ibekaku’s name mentioned. It is also on record that Daily Independent the news medium that first reported the false information withdrew their report and apologized to Mrs Ibekaku,” the statement said.
Okafor said that they shall be taking necessary legal actions to protect Mrs. Ibekaku-Nwagwu’s person, her family and hard-earned reputation.
