British police announced on Tuesday that they had charged Diezani Alison-Madueke, a former minister of petroleum resources, with bribery offenses according to Reuters. They claimed they suspected she had accepted bribes in exchange for awarding multimillion-pound oil and gas contracts.
The 63-year-old Alison-Madueke played a significant role in the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan, serving as the minister of petroleum resources from 2010 to 2015.
Additionally, she held the position of president of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.
“We believe Diezani Alison-Madueke abused her position of authority in Nigeria and accepted cash payments for signing multimillion-pound contracts.
Andy Kelly, Head of the National Crime Agency’s International Corruption Unit, said, “These charges are a milestone in what has been a comprehensive and complex international investigation.”
Alison-Madueke was accused of receiving at least 100,000 pounds in cash, a fleet of chauffeur-driven cars, private jet travel, opulent vacations for her family, and access to numerous properties in London.
According to the NCA, the charges against her also include financial benefits such as furniture, staff for property renovations, payment of private school tuition, and gifts from upscale designer stores like Louis Vuitton products and Cartier jewelry.
She was presently residing in the affluent West London neighborhood of St. John’s Wood, according to British police, and would be seen at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on October 2, 2023.
The statement read, “In granting the interim forfeiture order, Justice Olajuwon had ordered the EFCC to publish a notice in a national newspaper inviting anyone with an interest in the assets to show the reason why they should not be finally forfeited to the Federal Government of Nigeria. In order to receive a report, the court adjourned until January 22, 2022.
However, Alison-Madueke filed a lawsuit against the EFCC and the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation in May 2023, according to Saturday PUNCH, over what she described as a false and malicious attempt to “paint her as a common criminal.”
With Suit No CV/6273/2023 the case was filed in the Federal High Court’s Abuja Judicial Division.
Her legal counsel under the direction of Mr. Mike Ozekhome SAN who signed on her behalf
The EFCC and the AGF were listed as the case’s first and second defendants, respectively.
Alison-Madueke asked for N100m to be paid as compensation for the “false accusations and publications” made about her by the EFCC.
Additionally, she stipulated that the EFCC must express regret for the “injurious damage to her reputation” in at least three national dailies.
On August 8, 2017, the EFCC published an exposé under the title “EFCC traces N47.2bn, $487.5m to ex-Minister Diezani Alison-Madueke,” accusing the former minister of fraud and money laundering.
After stepping down from office in 2015, Alison-Madueke swiftly departed the nation.
Several other sums of money and other assets, such as jewelry and homes, linked to her had already been seized and forfeited to the Federal Government shortly after the EFCC publication.
In her lawsuit against the EFCC and the AGF, Alison-Madueke refuted the accusations and claimed that the anti-graft agency’s publication was “maliciously written and authored and/or caused to be written, authored, or published to the whole world at large.”
Through her attorney, Ozekhome, Alison-Madueke claimed in the statement of claim that the reason she left the country on May 22, 2015, was because she was given the news that she had “the most aggressive form of breast cancer, Triple Negative Cancer,” and was hastily flown to England to begin a crucial course of treatment.
A further claim made by Alison-Madueke was that “no money at all to the tune of $72.8 million associated with her was discovered in Fidelity Bank.”.
“The claimant (Alison-Madueke) states that contrary to the ridiculous allegation made by the first defendant that the sum of N47.2 bn, $487.5 m, $2.5 bn, $72.8 m, etc. were traced to the claimant’s home and bank accounts are laughable as no home can house such an amount of cash except for the Central Bank of Nigeria; nor banks keep custody of such sums without informing appropriate authorities. “.
