Diezani begs court to prevent EFCC from selling seized assets

Mrs Diezani Alison-Madueke, the former minister of petroleum resources, has petitioned the Federal High Court in

Abuja to prevent the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, or EFCC, from selling all of the properties that were

taken from her.

In the lawsuit she brought through a group of solicitors headed by Chief Mike Ozekhome, SAN, the former minister

also asked the court to issue an order compelling the anti-graft agency to collect from anybody (natural or corporate)

that it had sold any of the properties to.

She informed the court that the EFCC had started a public auction of assets connected to her in violation of her

fundamental right to a fair hearing, in accordance with a notice it had given in 2023.

The former petroleum minister claims that the anti-graft agency used final forfeiture orders it received from different

national courts as the basis for its decision to auction off the properties.

She told the court that she had not received any charges or proof of evidence related to any criminal action or

summons about any case pending before any court, even though the EFCC claimed that a final order of forfeiture had

been imposed against her seized possessions.

The applicant alleged that the anti-graft agency had obtained forfeiture orders against her by hiding facts and making

false statements.

“In many cases, the final forfeiture orders were made against properties which affected the Applicant’s interest; the

courts were misled into making the final order of forfeiture against the Applicant, based on 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 thus 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,” she said.

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The embattled former minister argued that the said forfeiture orders were made against her by courts that lacked the

requisite jurisdiction, saying they were made without recourse to her constitutional right to fair hearing.

Insisting she was never served with relevant court processes in all the proceedings that led to the orders for final

forfeiture of her assets, the Applicant said the EFCC was aware that she was not within the shores of Nigeria at all

material times, as she left to seek medical treatment since 2015.

In the meantime, the EFCC challenged its jurisdiction in a counter-affidavit it filed in response to the lawsuit. The anti-

graft agency informed the court in an affidavit provided by one of its investigators, Oyakhilome Ekienabor, that after a

thorough investigation into the applicant’s actions during her time as a public servant, criminal charges were brought

against her in a number of courts.

It told the court that examples of such cases included a suit marked: FHC/ABJ/CR/208/2018, which was filed in

November 2018, as well as another charge marked: HC/ADYL/56c/2017, filed on July 1, 2017, before a High Court in

Adamawa State.

In accordance with the Federal High Court’s final forfeiture orders issued by Justice C.A. Obiozor on July 9, 2019, and

another judgement issued by Justice I. N. Oweibo on September 10, 2019, the EFCC insisted that the sale of

properties that had previously belonged to the former minister was carried out.

The commission told the court that before the assets were deemed to have been forfeited, it made newspaper

publications inviting any person interested in the properties to show cause.”

“The final forfeiture orders pursuant to which the sale of the properties was conducted, are still in force and have not

been set aside. The forfeited properties were disposed of in accordance with the due process of law,” EFCC added.