Ex-Petroleum Minister Diezani’s suit to reclaim seized assets faces setback
A suit filed by former Minister of Petroleum Diezani Alison-Madueke to challenge the order obtained by the EFCC for the final forfeiture of her seized assets was stalled on Monday at a Federal High Court in Abuja.
The matter, which was before Justice Inyang Ekwo, was listed for further mention. However, the case could not proceed because the court did not sit.
Justice Ekwo was said to be attending a seminar at the National Judicial Institute (NJI) in Abuja.
The matter was subsequently scheduled for November 21.
The ex-minister had, through her counsel, Chief Mike Ozekhome, SAN, sued the anti-graft agency as the sole respondent.
Alison-Madueke, in the suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/21/2023, 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 of her property.
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In the motion dated and filed on January 6, 2023, by her lawyer, the former minister sought five orders from the court.
The former minister, who argued that the various orders were made without jurisdiction, stated that these “ought to be set aside ex debito justitiae.”
Alison-Madueke alleged that she was not given a fair hearing in the proceedings leading to the orders.
“The various court orders issued in favor of the respondent, upon which the respondent issued the public notice, were made in breach of the applicant’s right to fair hearing as guaranteed by Section 36(1) of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, and other similar constitutional provisions,” she said.
The former minister argued that she was neither served with the charge sheet nor proof of evidence in any of the charges, nor with any other summons regarding the criminal charges pending against her before the court.
She further argued that the courts were misled into making several final forfeiture orders against her assets through 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 through 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 is as good as if it were never made at all.
“The orders were made without recourse to the constitutional rights to fair hearing and to property accorded to 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 provided.
But the EFCC, in a counter-affidavit deposed to by Mr. Rufai Zaki, a detective with the commission, urged the court to dismiss her application.
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 acts of criminality. He stated that Alison-Madueke was therefore charged before the court in Charge No: FHC/ABJ/CR/208/2018.
He said that contrary to her deposition in the affidavit filed in support of the suit, most of the cases that led to the final forfeiture of the contested property “were actions in rem, heard at various times and determined by this honorable court.”
He mentioned that the courts ordered the commission to publish a newspaper notice inviting parties to show cause why the said property should not be forfeited to the federal government before final orders were made.
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Zaki argued that one Nnamdi Awa Kalu represented the ex-minister in response to one of the forfeiture applications.
“We humbly rely on the judgment of Hon. Justice I.L.N. Oweibo dated September 10, 2019, shown in Exhibit C of the applicant’s affidavit,” he said.
The officer stated that contrary to her claims, the final forfeiture of the assets subject to the present application was ordered by the court in 2017 and that this was not set aside or overturned on appeal.
According to him, the properties have been disposed of through due process of law.
Recall that Justice Ekwo had, on June 21, 2023, fixed October 23, 2023, for the hearing of the suit.
The judge had set the date after a lawyer who appeared for Alison-Madueke, Benson Igbanoi, and the EFCC’s counsel, M.D. Baraya, regularized their processes in the suit.
The anti-corruption agency had planned to conduct a public sale of all the assets seized as proceeds of crime, which courts ordered to be permanently forfeited to the federal government.
The auctioning of the seized assets, believed to include Alison-Madueke’s property, started on January 9, 2023.
The suspended chairman of the EFCC, Abdulrasheed Bawa, had revealed that $153 million and over 80 properties had been recovered from the ex-minister.
She was alleged to have escaped to the United Kingdom and remained there after her exit from public office as the petroleum minister, a position she held between 2010 and 2015 under the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan.
The asset-related suit is different from another suit she filed seeking N100 billion as compensation for a series of the EFCC’s alleged libelous publications against her.
Proofreading by Uchechi Ojo, Sub-editor at Neptune Prime.
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