The Federal High Court in Abuja on Monday gave Diezani Alison-Madueke, a former Minister of Petroleum, permission to amend her suit challenging the auctioning of her forfeited assets.
Channels TV reports that the judge, Inyang Ekwo, granted the application after it was moved by the ex-minister’s lawyer, Godwin Inyinbor.
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The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), which secured the order of forfeiture of the assets, did not oppose the application for suit amendment. The commission was represented by its lawyer, Divine Oguru, at Monday’s proceedings.
After granting the request, the judge gave Mrs Alison-Madueke five days to file and serve the amended processes.
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He also granted EFCC 14 days from the date of service to respond, and postponed the suit until 17 March for further mention.
Backstory
EFCC began investigating Mrs Alison-Madueke in 2015, after she left office as the petroleum minister during the then- President Goodluck Jonathan administration.
According to the anti-corruption agency, on getting wind of its plan to probe her over wide-ranging corruption allegations, Mrs Alison-Madueke escaped to the United Kingdom and remained there immediately after her exit from the office she held between 2010 and 2015.
Then-chairperson of the EFCC, Abdulrasheed Bawa, revealed in May 2021 that $153 million and over 80 properties had been recovered from Mrs Alison-Madueke.
EFCC subsequently announced a plan to conduct a public auction of all assets seized from Mrs Alison-Madueke beginning from 9 January 2023.
On 6 January 2023, about three days before the scheduled commencement of the auction, the former minister, through her lawyer, Mike Ozekhome, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, filed a motion seeking an order extension time to challenge EFCC’s public notice for public sale on her property.
In the motion marked FHC/ABJ/CS/21/2023, the former minister argued that the various orders were made without jurisdiction and “ought to be set aside”.
She said she was not given 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,” her application read.
She argued that she was not served with the charges and proof of evidence in any of the cases or any other summons in respect of the criminal charges pending against her before the court.
She 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.
“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 this honourable 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.
“The orders were made without recourse to the constitutional right to fair hearing and right to property accorded 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 given.
But the EFCC, in a counter-affidavit deposed to by Rufai Zaki, a detective with the commission, urged the court to dismiss her application.
Mr Zaki, who was 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 investigation had clearly shown that she was involved in some acts of criminality.
He said Mrs Alison-Madueke was therefore charged before the court in case marked FHC/ABJ/CR/208/2018.
“We hereby rely on the charge FHC/ABJ/CR/208/2018 dated 14 November, 2018 filed before this honourable court and also attached as Exhibit C in the applicant’s affidavit,” he said.
The EFCC operative said most of the depositions in Mrs Alison-Madueke’s affidavit were untrue.
He said contrary to her deposition in the affidavit filed in support of the suit, 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.”
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The officer said contrary to her claim, the final forfeiture of the assets which were subject of the present application was ordered by the court since 2017 and that this was not set aside or upturned on appeal.
According to him, the properties have been disposed of through due process of law.
The court eventually granted the extension of time to allow the former minister to challenge the forfeiture order.
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