Former Somali Deputy PM denies allegations

Somali(SLPOST) Somalia’s former Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Mrs. Fawzia Y. H. Adam has strongly denied allegations made by former Somali central bank governor Yusur Abrar who accused Mrs. Adam of putting pressure on her to open an account in Dubai to use it for stealing money, according to a report recently published by Reuters.

Mrs. Adam, Somalia’s first ever female to hold a top government post, said in a press statement of which HOL obtained a copy, that the graft allegations published by Reuters on her were libelous.

“I would like to state here the facts about allegations by Reuters regarding the above mentioned graft which have recently been circulating in the international and local media were baseless and I condemn it in the strongest terms possible,” Mrs. Fawzia Y. H. Adam said in her press statement.

“Under the above heading, Reuters reported that ‘The sources said that according to  Ms. Abrar (ex-Governor of Somali Central Bank), the former Foreign Minister (myself) had pressed her to open a bank account in Dubai against her wishes.  Abrar resigned without opening it,” she noted in the press statement.

Former Governor of Somali Central Bank Ms. Yusur Abrar – Photo HOL

The statement said that Ms. Abrar, the former Governor of the Central Bank, had been strongly supported by the former Deputy Prime minister  to get Abrar take such position as Governor precisely since Mrs. Adam wanted to see an experienced female in that high position to oppose graft (corruption).

Mrs. Adam said, as Reuters stated correctly, Ms. Abrar resigned only seven weeks after she was appointed to the post, however, out of those seven weeks Ms Abrar spent only four days working in the Central Bank(Evidence can be obtained from the Central Bank in Mogadishu).

“According to Reuters, Ms. Abrar has claimed that I have pressured her to open an account in Dubai.  However, the fact is that the account was in the process of being opened by the former Assistant Minister of Finance of Somalia and he wanted the new Governor of the Central Bank to co-sign with him. The purpose for opening this account was due to the lack of a SWIFT code for the Central Bank to receive transactions from overseas at that time,” the statement noted.

Source; -Hiiraan Online