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Court orders permanent forfeiture of $153.3m linked to Diezani

By Joseph Onyekwere
17 February 2017   |   4:40 am
Justice Muslim Hassan of the Federal High Court, Lagos, yesterday ordered the final forfeiture of the sum of $153 million linked to a former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Allison-Madueke.

Justice Muslim Hassan of the Federal High Court, Lagos, yesterday ordered the final forfeiture of the sum of $153 million linked to a former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Allison-Madueke.

The order followed an application by the Economic Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) seeking a forfeiture of the funds on account that they are proceeds of crime.

Justice Hassan had on January 6, issued an interim order of forfeiture of the said money to the Federal Government, in line with the prayers of the anti-graft agency.

The EFCC had initiated an ex parte application, seeking an interim order, for the temporary forfeiture of the sum to the FG, which it claims is linked to the ex Minister.

The court had also issued 14 days to any interested party to appear and prove the legitimacy of the monies, failing which the funds would be permanently forfeited to the FG.

At the last adjourned date on January 24, counsel for the Mr. Rotimi Oyedepo and that of the respondent (Lawal), had respectively argued their originating processes before the court.

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2 Comments

  • Author’s gravatar

    This so called ex Ministers are callous and greedy. Unfortunately they have naive and ignorant supporters.

  • Author’s gravatar

    Where did Channels TV get the N34 billion quote from? At the Interbank rate of N305/1USD, $153 million amounts to more than N46 billion. At street-level rate, you are looking at over N78 billion. On the average, you are talking about N60 billion. That’s enough money to settle a lot of problems for Naija people. And, that’s not all that this frog-eyed girl diverted for herself and her boss, Mr. Dumbo. Dunno why people still call him Clueless, as if he didn’t know what the Allibaba and his 40 thieves were doing scooping naira for themselves and the one feigned ignorance of what they were doing. There’s no way this guy could have thought that ignorance (aka Cluelessness) could have created for him plausible deniability.