A federal high court sitting in Lagos has ordered the final
forfeiture of $153 million allegedly linked to Diezani
Alison-Madueke, former minister of petroleum.
Muslim Hassan, the presiding
judge, delivered the ruling on Thursday, saying the Economic and Financial
Crimes Commission (EFCC) had evidence that the monies were proceeds of crime.
The EFCC had
said the money was taken from the
Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and stashed in
three Nigerian
banks.
Moses Awolusi, an EFCC investigator, had said two former group
executive directors of finance and account at NNPC, B.O.N. Otti and Stanley
Lawson, helped Alison-Madueke move the cash from NNPC.
Awolusi said out of the money, the EFCC had recovered the N23.4bn
in draft and had registered it as an exhibit marked, EFCC 01.
Alison-Madueke
has since denied that
the money belongs to her.
In a statement issued last month, the former minister said the
anti-graft agency did not have any evidence to buttress.
“I am deeply disturbed and bewildered by recent media reports
claiming that by virtue of an order of the federal high court, I have forfeited
to the federal government, the sum of $153.3m which I purportedly stole from
the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC,” she had said.
“This was never done. I wish to state that I cannot forfeit what
was never mine. I do not know the basis on which the EFCC have chosen to say
that I am the owner of these funds as no evidence was provided to me before the
order was obtained and they have not in fact served me with the order or, any
evidence since they obtained it.”
Despite her denial, the EFCC said it traced another mansion worth
$37.5 billion to her in Banana Island, Lagos.
She is currently in the United Kingdom
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