Diezani Alison- Madueke.
Nigeria's former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, has filed a lawsuit at a Federal High Court, Abuja seeking to vacate an order granted to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for final forfeiture of her seized assets.
In an originating motion, Alison-Madueke sought an order extending the time within which she could apply for a court order to set aside the EFCC’s public notice on the public sale of her property scheduled to begin on January 9.
According to a report by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), the anti-corruption agency planned to conduct a public sale of all assets seized from Alison-Madueke beginning from Jan. 9.
This follows various court judgments/orders issued in favor of the EFCC as final forfeiture orders against the property and personal effects of Diezani Alison-Madueke who served as Nigeria’s Petroleum Minister during President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration.
However, the former minister is arguing that the various orders were made without jurisdiction, insisting that these “ought to be set aside ex debito justitiae.”
She further said she was not given a fair hearing in all the proceedings leading to the orders.
The motion which sought five orders from the Court was filed by her lawyer, Chief Mike Ozekhome, SAN, on Jan. 6 and identified as: FHC/ABJ/CS/21/2023.
The EFCC is the only respondent in the lawsuit, while Alison-Madueke is the applicant.
“The various court orders issued in favor of the respondent and upon which the respondent issued the public notice to conduct a public sale of items contained in 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.
The former petroleum minister argued that she was not served with the court processes in all the proceedings, adding that the courts were misled into making the final forfeiture orders against her assets through applications that were fraught with "misrepresentations" and "the suppression or non-disclosure of material facts."
“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 honorable court has the power to set aside same ex debito justitiae, as a void order that is as good as if it was never made at all.
"The orders were made without recourse to the constitutional right to a 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.
However, in a counter affidavit deposed to by Rufai Zaki, a detective with the commission, the EFCC urged the court to dismiss Alison-Madueke’s application, noting that most of her statements were not true and adding that investigations had clearly shown that she was involved in some acts of criminality.
“We hereby rely on the charge FHC/ABJ/CR/208/2018 dated 14th November 2018 filed before this honorable court and also attached as Exhibit C in the applicant’s affidavit,” the Commission stated.
While admitting that it was aware of the ex-ministers motion, the Commission stated that contrary to Alison-Madueke's deposition in the affidavit in support, most of the cases which led to the final forfeiture of the property in the contest, “were active in rem, same were heard at various times and determined by this honorable court.”
EFCC maintained that before the final orders were made, the courts differently ordered it to make a publication in a newspaper inviting parties to show cause why the said property should not be forfeited to the Federal Government.
The commission also stated that in response to one of the forfeiture applications, the ex-minister was represented by one Nnamdi Awa Kalu.
“We humbly rely on the judgment of Hon. Justice I.L.N Oweibo dated 10th September 2019 shown in Exhibit C of the applicant’s affidavit.”
EFCC said that contrary to Alison-Madueke's claim, the final forfeiture of the assets was ordered by the court in 2017, the order was neither set aside nor upturned on appeal and as such, the properties have been disposed of through a due process of law.
When the matter came up for mention on Monday, Alison-Madueke’s lawyer, Oluchi Uche, told Justice Ekwo that they would need some time to respond to the counter affidavit, having just been served by the EFCC on Friday.
Farouk Abdullah, who stood for the EFCC did not object, so the judge adjourned the matter until May 8 for a hearing.
Rufai Zaki, who was deposed to the EFCC counterclaim was a member of the team that probed the allegations of criminal conspiracy, official corruption, and money laundering against the ex-minister of Petroleum and other persons involved in the case.
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