Mr. Akinwumi Adesina, the President of the African Development Bank, keeps receiving encomiums on his vindication by an independent panel which investigated corruption allegations leveled against him.
Continental and regional blocs including the African Union and the Economic Community of West African States as well as notable leaders around the world have since congratulated the former Nigerian minister of agriculture with the latest on the list being former Liberian President, Ellen Sirleaf.
“We rejoice that, as expected, the AfDB Group President, Akinwumi Adesina, has been declared fully innocent of all accusations by the Independent Panel headed by Mary Robinson,” Africa’s first female president tweeted on Friday morning.
Replying, Adesina, who is the sole candidate for the bank’s August’s presidential elections, wrote, “Thank you very much, Your Excellency, Madam President Ellen Sirleaf for your strong support, confidence and trust. I am humbled and grateful.”
It was earlier reported that the African banking institution and Adesina had been in the eye of the storm since April over allegations of impropriety leveled against him by some whistleblowers working in the bank.
But Adesina, 60, who became the first Nigerian to helm the AfDB in 2015, had always insisted he was “innocent” of the charges.
The bank’s Ethics’ Committee, which first investigated the allegations, gave him a clean bill that was accepted by the Board of Governors but the United States rejected the report and demanded a fresh probe by an independent body.
The independent panel headed by former Irish President, Mary Robinson, “concurs with the Committee in its findings in respect of all the allegations against the President and finds that they were properly considered and dismissed by the Committee.”
Source: Punch
