Former petroleum Minister, Diezani Alison-Madueke, has officially lost the ownership of her vast bank of jewellery valued at $40m.
Based on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission’s valuation, the amount is about 14 billion naira, at the rate of N360 to a dollar.
Justice Nicholas Oweibo of the Federal High Court sitting in Lagos, on Tuesday September 10th, ordered the permanent forfeiture of the 2,149 pieces of jewellery and a customised gold iPhone.
Delivering judgement in a petition filed by Diezani challenging the EFCC’s authority to seize the items, Justice Oweibo held that the former Minister through her counsel, Awa Kalu (SAN), failed to show cause why the items should not be permanently forfeited to the Federal Government.
The EFCC, which seized the assets two months ago, told the court that they were beyond the minister’s legitimate means.
According to the commission, they are proceeds of unlawful activities.
Since 2015, the EFCC has been working on funds it claimed the former minister, who has been in the United Kingdom since then, looted.
Speaking on fortunes traced to her, EFCC’s Acting Chairman, Ibrahim mag, had said in one of his comments on her:
“We are working on the process of Diezani’s extradition. But we have to allow them (the UK government) because we are collaborating. There is the National Crime Agency and the Crown Prosecution Service in London, and our colleagues, the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation in America. We had cause to meet in London. I was there myself for about a week. We are working not only on the Diezani case; but the Diezani case has become a test case.
“It is even more notorious than the so-called Abacha loot because we have not seen anything yet. I’m sure what we have seen is not more than may be 15 per cent. I think it is going to be a long time. That is why sometimes I think we should appeal to the looters to return the loot. Come and tell the government, ‘This is what I have stolen.’ Since you have voluntarily complied with the instruction to bring back the loot, then the government will take a decision. I think it is the best way to go about it, otherwise, the monies would be wasted.
“Diezani has a lot of people who are well connected, like (Jide) Omokore who are international businessmen. They have private aircraft and you can’t see any of them in Nigeria. They went and kept them in Ghana, some of them. But we are working with almost all law enforcement agencies in the world. They are all willing to work with us because what I told them is, ‘As long as you have any (claim) of criminality in Nigeria, call us.’
“We will go after the criminals because we don’t wait for protocol. Delay is dangerous; when you delay you will not see it. So, we are ready to cooperate with everybody and people have shown willingness. Last time I went to the international convention, they said Nigeria should show it experience. So, the whole world at the United Nations level wants to hear our asset recovery experience.”
