AKUNYILI THREATENS TO SUE AONDOAKAA

A CRISIS of high magnitude has hit the Federal Executive Council (FEC). It is between the Minister of Information and Communications, Professor  Dora Akunyili, and the Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF), Chief Mike Kaase Aondoakaa (SAN).
The AGF was quoted by a national daily (not the Nigerian Compass) on Monday as saying: “Let her (Mrs Akunyili) go and confront herself with what happened in NAFDAC (National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control).”
Professor Akunyili was the immediate Director-General of NAFDAC.
But the angry information and communications minister told Aondoakaa yesterday to recant the statement or face a court action.
Mrs Akunyili gave the AGF a seven-day ultimatum to refute the statement.
The genesis of their quarrel was a memo presented by the information and communications minister at last week’s FEC meeting, in which she urged her colleagues to make Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan the Acting President in the absence of the ailing President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua.
Yar’Adua has been away in Saudi Arabia for medical treatment for acute pericarditis since November 23, last year.
The pro-Yar’Adua ministers, however, kicked against the memo, saying it was hasty.
But Mrs Akunyili was praised by many Nigerians and organisations for her bravery.
Besides presenting the memo at the FEC, she has also submitted it to the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Alhaji Yayale Ahmed, meaning that it would be tabled for discussion at today’s FEC meeting.
Jonathan was, however, made the Acting President by the National Assembly yesterday.