Forfeited assets: Court fixes date to hear Diezani’s suit against EFCC

A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has fixed October 23, 2023, for hearing a suit filed by former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke, challenging the order obtained by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for final forfeiture of her seized assets.

The presiding judge, Justice Inyang Ekwo, fixed the date on Wednesday, June 21, after Alison-Madueke’s lawyer, Benson Igbanoi, and EFCC’s counsel, M.D. Baraya, regularised their processes in the suit.

The anti-graft agency had planned to conduct public sale of all the assets seized for being proceeds of crime as ordered by courts to be permanently forfeited to the Federal Government

The auctioning exercise, conducted on the seized assets believed to include Diezani’s property, started on January 9.

The immediate-past chairman of EFCC, Abdulrasheed Bawa, had recently revealed that $153 million and over 80 properties were recovered from Alison-Madueke.

She was alleged to have escaped to the United Kingdom and remained there after her exit from public office as the petroleum minister, an office she held between 2010 and 2015 under the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan.

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

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

While Alison-Madueke is the applicant, the EFCC is 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,” Alison-Madueke said.

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

The former minister further argued that the courts were misled into making several of the final forfeiture orders against her assets through suppression or non-disclosure of material facts.

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

Zaki, who was a member of the team that investigated a case of criminal conspiracy, 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.

The EFCC operative, who said he had seen the ex-minister’s motion, said most of the depositions were untrue.

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

He said the courts differently 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.

The officer said contrary to her, the final forfeiture of the assets which were subject to the present application was ordered by the court in 2017 and that this was not set aside or upturned on appeal.

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

The Star