Bye-election threatens Oyo AC’s peace moves

25.01.2008

THE United Nations has defended the letter written on the redeployment of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Chairman, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, to President Umaru Yar'Adua by the Executive Director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, Antonio Maria Costa, describing the letter as confidential, Empowered Newswire reports.

When asked on Wednesday afternoon at the UN headquarters in New York by Empowered Newswire for a comment on the UNODC letter which Nigeria's opposition party, Action Congress, had described as a blackmail, Marie Okabe, the deputy spokesperson for the UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, said “It was a confidential letter, and Mr. Costa is still awaiting a response from the Nigerian government.”

Not only was the UN agency still awaiting a response from the Nigerian government, but in addition, the deputy spokesperson said the UNODC Director, who wrote the letter, was planning to “discuss this matter with Nigerian officials at next week’s conference of the states-parties to the UN Convention Against Corruption in Bali, Indonesia.”

UN officials earlier explained that the UNODC had the mandate on issues of corruption and as such Costa’s letter to the Nigerian president fell within the purview of the agency's mandate.

But the Action Congress (AC) had raised a concern that a UN agency was interfering with the domestic affairs of the Nigerian government.