Unless the Economic and Financial Crime Commission gets former Petroleum Minister, Diezani Maduekwe, extradited to Nigeria by March 2020, the corruption case it instituted against her will be closed.
Justicee Ijeoma Ojukwu of the Federal High Court in Abuja on Tuesday gave the indication, telling the EFCC that the case could not continue or stay pending forever.
“My docket is not going to be a waiting room for the prosecution.
“I will give you one more adjournment. If nothing happens on the next date, I will strike it out,” the judge told the commission’s lawyer, Mr. Faruk Abdulah, who had pleaded with the judge to adjourn the case sine die (indefinitely), on the grounds that the EFCC was facing challenges in its bid to extradite the defendant from the United Kingdom.
The commission had in November 2018 filed 13 counts of money laundering against the ex-minister accusing her of unlawfully taking into her possession the sums of $39.7m and N3.32bn with which she allegedly bought choice properties in Abuja, Lagos and Port Harcourt in Rivers State, while she was in office.
