Fresh insight on why Alison-Madueke ran away since this administration emerges
Contrary to earlier speculations that the former Minister of petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke had left the country immediately President Muhammadu won the 2015 presidential election on health ground, indications have emerged that her escape was in response to the fact that the promised fight against corruption will be too hot for her in particular.
This stemmed from Thursday’s revelation by the Acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ibrahim Magu, that only about 15 per cent of funds allegedly misappropriated by her, had been recovered, an indication that more is being pursued for recovery by the agency.
Earlier on her purported escape to London in 2015, Alison-Madueke was reportedly said to be suffering from cancer as pictures of her dropping hairs and fast-ageing skin went viral, but there had been no other follow up or update on the stage of the sickness, rather than absolute silence, thus pointing to the fact there may have been more to her escape from Nigeria which is emerging since recently.
Explaining more, EFCC hinted that it is working with the United Kingdom on her case for early extradition to Nigeria.
Magu averred that “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,” Magu averred.
