The Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission (EFCC) on Thursday, September 21, denied blocking an attempt by
embattled former petroleum minister, Diezani Alison-Madueke, to return to
Nigeria to face trial.
The former minister is facing
multiple corruption and money laundering allegations during her tenure as
minister.
She is also being investigated by
the British and American authorities, and has been living in the United Kingdom
for two years where she is receiving treatment for cancer.
Read the report below:Very wrong headline it was! How can EFCC be seeking her extradition & same time blocking it? Please read this report for what transpired.— EFCC Nigeria (@officialEFCC) September 21, 2017
Justice Nnamdi Dimgba of the
Federal High Court Abuja, on September 20, dismissed an application brought by
a former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke, seeking to be
joined as a defendant in the trial of Jide Omokore, and also struck out the
eighth count in which her name was listed.
Omokore, chairman, Atlantic
Energy Brass Development and Atlantic Energy Drilling Concept, is facing a
nine-count charge along with Victor Briggs, a former Managing Director,
National Petroleum Development Company; Abiye Membere, a former Group Executive
Director, Exploration and Production at the NNPC, and David Mbanefo, a former
Manager, Planning and Commercial at NNPC, for a $1.6 billion fraud.
Counsel for Diezani, Onyechi
Ikpeazu, SAN, had on September 18 filed the application, based on the fact that
her name was listed in the eighth count, and sought for amendment of the
charge, to include her as the seventh defendant, “in order to give her the
opportunity to defend herself”.
In the said application, Diezani also
requested that the court direct the Attorney General of the Federation to
facilitate her appearance in court on the next adjourned date in October 2017.
Counsel for the EFCC, M.S.
Abubakar, in an 18-paragraph counter-affidavit, however, vehemently opposed the
application, arguing that, 'the applicant realized she was being investigated,
and she absconded abroad and sometimes in March this year operatives were in
London, but her lawyers refused to allow the operatives interview her.'
He added that: 'My lord, this present
application is a plot by the applicant to enable her escape prosecution in
London, also to enable her come to Nigeria and scuttle the ongoing case which
has already gotten to an advanced stage.'
After hearing arguments, Justice Dimgba,
declined to grant the application, and instead, struck out the eighth count in
which Diezani’s name appeared.
The trial of Omokore and his
co-defendants continues on October 5."
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