Asset Forfeiture: Court to hear Diezani’s suit against EFCC

The hearing of a lawsuit filed by former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke, against the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for the final forfeiture of her seized assets has been scheduled for 23 October by the Federal High Court in Abuja.

On Wednesday, Judge Inyang Ekwo set the date after the respective lawyers of Mrs. Alison-Madueke, Benson Igbanoi, and the EFCC’s counsel, M.D. Baraya, completed the necessary procedures for the case.

According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), the anti-corruption agency had initially planned to publicly auction all the assets seized, which were deemed to be proceeds of crime and ordered by the courts to be permanently forfeited to the federal government. The auctioning process began on 9 January and included properties believed to be owned by Diezani.

Abdulrasheed Bawa, the suspended chairman of the EFCC, recently disclosed that $153 million and more than 80 properties had been recovered from Mrs. Alison-Madueke.

Following her departure from public office as the Minister of Petroleum Resources, a position she held from 2010 to 2015 during the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan, Diezani Alison-Madueke was accused of fleeing to the United Kingdom and residing there.

It’s important to note that the suit mentioned earlier, which is scheduled for hearing on 23 October, is distinct from another lawsuit she filed. In the separate case, Diezani Alison-Madueke sought N100 billion as compensation for a series of alleged defamatory publications by the EFCC against her.

The former minister, who has corruption charges pending against her in a Nigerian court, said in her libel suit that she had been living in the United Kingdom after she was rushed there for medical treatment days to completing her term in office as minister in May 2015.

Suit

But the ex-minister, in her assets-related suit, sought an order extending the time to seek leave to apply to the court for an order to set aside the EFCC’s public notice issued to conduct a public sale on her property.

In the motion marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/21/2023, dated and filed on 6 January by her lawyer, Mr Ozekhome, the former minister sought five orders from the court.

Mrs Alison-Madueke sued the EFCC as the sole respondent in the suit.

The former minister, who argued that the various orders were made without jurisdiction, said these “ought to be set aside ex debito justitiae.”

She said she was not given a fair hearing in all the proceedings leading to the orders.

“The various court orders issued in favour of the respondent and upon which the respondent issued the public notice were issued in breach of the applicant’s right to fair hearing as guaranteed by Section 36 (1) of the 1999 Constitution, as altered, and other similar constitutional provisions,” she said.

She argued that she was neither served with the charge sheet and proof of evidence in any of the charges nor any other summons regarding the criminal charges pending against her before the court.

“The several applications upon which the courts made the final order of forfeiture against the applicant were obtained upon gross misstatements, misrepresentations, non-disclosure, concealment and suppression of material facts, and this honourable court has the power to set aside same ex debito justitiae, as a void order is as good as if it was never made at all.

“The orders were made without recourse to the constitutional right to fair hearing and right to property accorded the applicant by the constitution.
“The applicant was never served with the processes of court in all the proceedings that led to the order of final forfeiture,” she said, among other grounds given.

EFCC counters

But the EFCC, in a counter-affidavit deposed to by Rufai Zaki, a detective with the commission, urged the court to dismiss her application.

Mr Zaki, a member of the team that investigated a case of criminal conspiracy, official corruption and money laundering against the ex-minister and some other persons involved in the case, said the investigation had clearly shown that she was involved in some acts of criminality.

He said Mrs Alison-Madueke was therefore charged before the court in charge no: FHC/ABJ/CR/208/2018.

“We hereby rely on the charge FHC/ABJ/CR/208/2018 dated 14 November 2018 filed before this honourable court and also attached as Exhibit C in the applicant’s affidavit,” he said.

The EFCC operative said most of the depositions in Mrs Alison-Madueke’s suit were untrue.

He said contrary to her deposition in the affidavit filed in support of the suit, most of the cases which led to the final forfeiture of the contested property “were action in rem, same was heard at various times and determined by this honourable court.”

He said the courts ordered the commission to do a newspaper publication inviting parties to show cause why the said property should not be forfeited to the federal government before final orders were made.

Mr Zaki argued that one Nnamdi Awa Kalu represented the ex-minister in reaction to one of the forfeiture applications.

According to him, the properties have been disposed of through due process of law.

(NAN)