Ngozi Okonjo Iweala floors Femi Falana. Calls him a charlatan.

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, former minister of finance and coordinating minister of the economy, has described Femi Falana, a human rights lawyer, as an “integrity challenged charlatan”.

In a statement on Monday, by Paul Nwabuikwu, her media adviser, the former minister absolved herself of complicity in the arms deal as accused by Falana in a petition he wrote to the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Falana had urged the ICC to prosecute and arrest Okonjo-Iweala for failing to “prevent systematic and widespread corruption” in the previous administration.

He described as “criminal” the transfer of recovered $322 million loot of Sani Abacha, former Nigerian dictator, to Sambo Dasuki, the former national security adviser.

According to Falana, in the petition, which he sent to Fatou Bensouda, prosecutor of the ICC, “the failure of a former Finance Minister, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala to prevent widespread and systematic corruption including the re-looting of the Abacha loot amounts to complicity under the Rome Statute, and therefore fits the legal requirements of a crime against humanity,” he wrote.

However, Okonjo-Iweala has denied any wrong saying the money was transferred after receiving approval of Goodluck Jonathan, the former president, to transfer a part of the recovered Sani Abacha loot to Sambo Dasuki, the former national security adviser, after securing guarantees that the money would be properly accounted for.

She claimed that Falana is desperate to link her with the $2.1bn arms scandal because she “hurt the interests of his corrupt sponsors” during her time in office.

She added that some of the funds recovery was done under the regime of former leaders Abdulsalami Abubakar and Olusegun Obasanjo when she was not in government.

“It is sad that a person who had earned some prominence as a human rights lawyer now tramples on the human rights of others as a political jobber,” she said.

“It is extremely insensitive and, in fact, inhumane for Falana and his sponsors to level false accusations against someone like Dr Okonjo-Iweala who went through this kind of searing personal ordeal for her principled fight against corruption.

“He and his sponsors are engaged in nothing but media harassment, cyber bullying and intimidation against innocent persons like Dr Okonjo-Iweala for political and pecuniary gain. That is why Nigerians should not give in to Falana’s self-imposed Chronic Cerebral Amnesia (CCA),” she said