Ex-Petroleum Minister, Diezani Loses Bid To Recover $40m USD Jewelry

Ex-Petroleum Minister, Diezani Loses Bid To Recover $40m USD Jewelry

Hope of Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, a former Nigeria’s Minister of Petroleum Resources, to recover her jewelry worth $40 million USD, which was forfeited to the federal government, by a Lagos Federal High Court, has hit the rock, following dismissal of her appeal challenging the final forfeiture of the said jewelry.

The three man-panel of Justices at the Lagos division of the Court of Appeal, while delivering judgment in the appeal filed by the fugitive Minister, today, upheld the decision of Justice Nicholas Oweibo of a Lagos Federal High Court forfeiting the jewelry to the Nigerian Goverment. 

The panel held that Mrs. Alison-Madueke’s appeal to recover $40million worth of jewellery forfeited to the Federal Government, lack substance and dismissed same accordingly.

The appellate court gave its judgment in an appeal filed by Alison-Madueke marked as Appeal No CA/L/1263/19 between Diezani Alison-Madueke And the EFCC.

Today’s judgment of the Appeal Court affirmed the 2019 judgment of Justice Nicholas Oweibo of the Federal High Court which forfeited the jewellery following an application filed before the court by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). 

EFCC had on July 5, 2019, secured an order of the lower court temporarily forfeiting the expensive items to the Federal Government.

According to the schedule attached to the application, the jewellery, categorised into 33 sets, include “419 expensive bangles; 315 expensive rings; 304 expensive earrings; 267 expensive necklaces; 189 expensive wristwatches; 174 expensive necklaces and earrings; 78 expensive bracelets; 77 expensive brooches; and 74 expensive pendants.”

The items were recovered from the former Minister’s home at 10, Fredrick Chiluba Close, Asokoro, Abuja (FCT).

Justice Oweibo had on July 19, 2019, granted the EFCC’s motion for final forfeiture of the jewellery.

The judge held that the former Minister failed to show cause why the jewellery should not be forfeited to the Federal Government.

In his application for the final forfeiture order, EFCC’s counsel Mr Rotimi Oyedepo had told the judge that the items were reasonably suspected to have been acquired with the proceeds of unlawful activities of the former minister.

An investigator with the Commission, Rufai Zaki, in an affidavit before the court insisted that the jewellery were beyond the former minister’s “known and provable lawful income”.

The investigator further said that findings by the EFCC showed that she started acquiring the jewellery in 2012, two years after she was appointed Minister.

The investigator also said that the EFCC was in possession of the details of the bank account through which Mrs Alison-Madueke received her salary as a minister.

“The respondent did not utilise her salary or any part of her legitimate income to acquire the assets sought to be forfeited to the Federal Government of Nigeria”, Zaki said.

He said a “damning intelligence report” received by the Commission led to the search of former minister’s house at No. 10 Fredrick Chiluba Close, Asokoro, Abuja.

The Former Minister on her part had challenged the seizure of the jewellries from her premises by the EFCC.

An affidavit filed on her behalf by her counsel, Prof Awa Kalu (SAN), Diezani, who is currently in the United Kingdom, alleged that the EFCC violated her fundamental “right to own property and to appropriate them at her discretion,” under sections 43 and 44 of the constitution.

She also accused the anti-graft agency of entering her apartment illegally and taking the items without any court order.