Unic Press UK: Diezani Alison-Madueke, 56-years-old, a former federal minister in-charge of petroleum resources and the first woman to be president of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), was on Thursday, the 16th February 2017, ordered by a Federal High Court sitting in Lagos, to permanently forfeit the sum of ₦34 billion to the Nigerian government.
The ruling by Judge Hassan was apropos of a suit filed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), asking the federal high court to order the forfeiture of monies in three commercial banks [₦23,446,300,000 at Sterling Bank plc, ₦9,080,000,000 stashed at First Bank plc and $5,000,000 at Access Bank plc], which it believed were proceeds of crime kept there by Diezani Alison-Madueke.
It is believed that Alison-Madueke, in concert with several proxies, fiddled with huge sums of public money, particularly funds of the state-owned oil corporation, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).
Prior to the judgement, the federal high court had given parties to the suit and any interested persons/companies 14 days to show serious cause why the monies should not be permanently forfeited to the Nigerian government.
