Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Director General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), has refuted an alleged assertion that she is being assaulted for meeting President Bola Tinubu.
In a tweet on Wednesday evening, the former Nigerian Finance Minister condemned the assertion, which she said was being distributed on WhatsApp, as “wickedly false designed to create mischief among Nigerians.”
She also requested that the statement be ignored.
“It has just been brought to my attention that there is a false statement circulating on what’s app attributed to me saying that I am being attacked for my visit to President Tinubu.
“That statement circulating is false, Infact wickedly false designed to create mischief among Nigerians. Please disregard the statement,” Okonjo-Iweala wrote.
Newsclick Nigeria reported that the WTO DG met with President Tinubu on Tuesday at the Aso Villa in Abuja.
Speaking after her meeting with the President, Okonjo-Iweala told journalists at the Presidential Villa that they spoke on ways to create jobs for young people and trying to support women and children, whom she said bore the brunt of the suffering in the country.
The meeting comes two months after both leaders met in France at the Global Pact Summit in Paris hosted by President Emmanuel Macron.
Okonjo-Iweala served twice as Nigeria’s Finance Minister between 2003 and 2006 as well as from 2011 to 2015, the first woman to hold the position.
She also spent a 25-year career at the World Bank rising to the Number 2 position of Managing Director.
It has just been brought to my attention that there is a false statement circulating on what’s app attributed to me saying that I am being attacked for my visit to President Tinubu. That statement circulating is false, Infact wickedly false designed to create mischief among…
— Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala (@NOIweala) August 9, 2023