Diezani loses two more cars and Abuja luxury properties to the federal government

FORMER petroleum minister Diezani Alison-Madueke has lost more of her illegally acquired wealth to the federal government after an Abuja federal high court ordered the forfeiture of two Abuja property and two luxury cars.

Since leaving office in 2015 and going into exile in the UK, Ms Alison-Madueke has been the subject of numerous investigations in Nigeria and internationally. She has been asked to forfeit UK properties worth over £11m and has been forced to surrender about N7.6bn ($17.4m) hidden in a Nigerian bank to the government.

In July 2019, Diezani had jewellery worth $40m, including a customised gold iPhone, seized from her after a Lagos federal high court ordered their forfeiture to the federal government. She appealed the decision, trying to get them returned to her by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) but lost the case at an appeal in October that year.

Earlier today, Justice Mobolaji Olajuwon of the federal high court in Abuja, ordered the final forfeiture of two Abuja property and two luxury cars belonging to Diezani. He gave the order forfeiting the assets to the federal government while ruling on the application by the EFCC, asking for the final forfeiture of the assets.

On November 29, 2021, the EFCC secured the interim forfeiture of the assets in a ruling on a separate motion ex-parte, which prayed the court to order the interim forfeiture of the assets on the grounds of reasonable suspicion that they were proceeds of unlawful activities. These two property are located at Plot 1854 Mohammed Mahashir Street and 6, Aso Drive, in the highbrow Asokoro and Maitama Districts of Abuja and are valued at $2,674,418 and N380, 000,000 respectively.

Meanwhile, the luxury cars are a black BMW saloon and a black Jaguar saloon car, valued at N36,000,000. In granting the interim forfeiture order, Justice Olajuwon had ordered the EFCC to publish a notice in a national newspaper, inviting anyone with interest in the assets to show cause why they should not be finally forfeited to the federal government.

Consequently, the court  adjourned till January 22, 2022, for a report. In compliance with the order of the court, the forfeiture order was published in Thisday Newspaper of Wednesday, April 6, 2022 and in the absence of any contestation, today, the court forfeited the property to the federal government.