Barely one month after, another Court orders final forfeiture of Diezani’s N7.6bn loot
If anybody is making the news in the last one month in terms of forfeiture of looted or proceeds of criminal transactions, it is former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke.
On Monday, a Federal High Court, again, ordered final forfeiture of seized $21 million (about N7.6bn) from bank accounts linked to her.
The former Minister had on hearing that President Muhammadu Buhari won the 2015 presidential election, escaped under the guise of ill-health, but not so much had been heard on her level of either recuperation from the unmanned ailment of level of recovery.
Business Hilights gathered that the Federal High Court Judge, Abdulazeez Anka ordered the immediate forfeiture of 7.6 billion naira ($21 million, 17.9 million euros) allegedly held in local bank accounts by Diezani Alison-Madueke.
The final forfeiture order stemmed from months of investigations, filing of the suit by the anti-graft agency, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), and hearing to apparent nonappearance of the accused or her representatives.
This trend was exactly what greeted her first forfeiture of palatial condominiums situated at choicest wing of the Lagos Banana Island, less than one month ago by another Federal High Court in Lagos.
The ruling followed two applications by the EFCC which earlier this month successfully seized properties worth $44 million that Alison-Madueke allegedly purchased with the proceeds of corruption.
Business Hilights recalls that the former Minister who was the longest serving Minister under the last administration of Goodluck Jonathan, had been variously implicated in bribery, fraud, misuse of public funds and money laundering cases in Nigeria, Britain, Italy and the United States.
There is still another case which is under temporary forfeiture pending the next adjourned date bordering on over 60 houses spread across parts of key cities of the federation.
