Diezani Alison-Madueke Reportedly Bought Dominican Republic’s Passport for Immunity
Al Jazeera’s Investigative Unit has exposed a corrupt trade in diplomatic appointments which has helped to keep some Caribbean politicians in power.
With a general election due in Dominica on December 6th, the programme, “Diplomats for Sale” reveals how the leaders of both main political parties in Dominica are said to be willing to accept secret campaign contributions from foreigners wanting the privileges of a diplomatic passport.
Undercover filming reveals how a former Dominican Prime Minister offered to broker a secret deal to make a businessman in Asia, an ambassador for Dominica.
The eighteen month investigation focuses mainly on Dominica and Grenada and reveals how both countries have appointed foreigners to be their ambassadors around the world.
The investigation also tracks the story of former Nigerian Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke. In 2015, just as she was being investigated for multi-million dollar fraud in Nigeria, Dominica’s Prime Minister personally handed her a Dominican diplomatic passport which potentially gave her immunity from arrest. Al Jazeera also asks whether that passport was linked to Prime Minister Skerrit’s family moving into a luxury New York apartment. That’s an allegation which both Diezani Allison-Madueke and Roosevelt Skerrit deny.
Al Jazeera also investigates how dozens of wealthy international businessmen have been made ambassadors by several Caribbean states to represent them in countries around the world and at the United Nations.
While there is no evidence of wrongdoing on their part or payment for their positions, many of their ambassadorships don’t conform to the UN’s own convention on who should be a diplomat. The 1961 Vienna Convention says ambassadors should normally be citizens of the country and not engaged in professional activity, beyond their full time diplomatic role in the countries they’re appointed to.
Source: Aljazeera