Deputy Secretary-General of the United
Nations, Amina Mohammed, has strongly denied claims that she was involved in
the illegal export of African rosewood from Nigeria to China in a trade deal
estimated to be worth $300m.
The Environmental Investigation
Agency (EIA), in a documentary video obtained by DAILY POST, claimed that
Mohammed might have derived personal benefits from signing thousands of
allegedly backdated permits in January 2017 which it said were used to clear
illegal rosewood exports to China.
However, Mohammed in an interview
with TheCable, sternly denied the allegations, stressing that she spent her
time at the ministry working to eliminate the illegal export of the tropical
hardwood used for rosewood furniture in China.
“No permits were backdated or
illegally signed by me. We are therefore appalled if any legally obtained or
forged certificates were used by unscrupulous rosewood traders to circumvent
exportation procedures,” she said.
“Not only do I decry fraud and
corruption, we also categorically reject any allegations of corruption or
coercion in our effort to better address illegal logging and exportation.”
“I categorically deny receiving
any bribe. It has never been in my character. I never demanded neither did I
collect any bribe, either cash or material,” she further told TheCable.
Mohammed said when she was
appointed minister of environment in November 2015, “one of the first issues I
had to deal with was deforestation. It was a huge concern as Nigeria was losing
its forest cover at an alarming rate… For me, protecting the environment is
sacrosanct. When I was minister, one of my first acts was to tackle illegal
logging. What I found on ground was alarming”.
Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everydayAdvertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users
No comments
Post a Comment
Kindly drop a comment below.
(Comments are moderated. Clean comments will be approved immediately)
Advert Enquires - Reach out to us at NigerianEye@gmail.com