The EFCC described Diezani’s
pleas to be brought back to Nigeria as a ploy to escape justice in the UK,
where, according to the EFCC, she is being investigated for several financial
crimes by the Metropolitan Police.
According to the commission,
investigation by the Metropolitan Police in Diezani’s case had reached an
advanced stage and her prosecution in the UK was imminent.
The EFCC made this disclosure in
a counter-affidavit it filed in opposition to Diezani’s application before
Justice Rilwan Aikawa, wherein she is seeking an order compelling the Attorney
General of the Federation to facilitate her return to Nigeria.
In the said application, which
she filed through her lawyer, Mr. Onyechi Ikpeazu, Diezani said she wished to
appear before the Federal High Court in Lagos to defend a criminal charge
bordering on alleged laundering of N450m, where her name was mentioned.
The main defendants in the charge
are a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Mr. Dele Belgore; and a former Minister of
National Planning, Prof. Abubakar Suleiman.
But kicking against the application,
the EFCC, in a counter-affidavit deposed to by one of its operatives, Usman
Zakari, explained that when it began investigation into the case involving
Belgore and Suleiman sometime in 2015, Diezani spurned its invitations to
explain her role and rather absconded the UK.
Zakari said, “That the applicant,
seeing that the investigation by the Metropolitan Police had reached advanced
stage and that trial in the instant charge before this honourable court is
proceeding smoothly, had designed the instant application to distract and
scuttle both her investigation and imminent prosecution in the United Kingdom
the trial before this honourable court.
“That the applicant, who knows
full well that she is on bail in the United Kingdom where she is being investigated
for several financial crimes, and that she would not be able to leave that
country in view of the ongoing investigation and imminent trial, is seeking the
order of this honourable court for the charge before this honourable court to
be amended to include her name on the face of the charge in order for her to
escape from investigation and prosecution in the United Kingdom under the guise
that she is coming to face her trial before this honourable court and also to
scuttle the trial before this honourable court.”
Justice Aikawa adjourned till
Wednesday for ruling.
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