Towards the end of former
President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration, former Minister of Petroleum
Resources, Mrs Diezani Alison-Madueke, was appointed Commissioner for Trade and
Investment by Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit of the Commonwealth of Dominica
and was handed a diplomatic passport.
This, perhaps, is why Diezani has
been able to evade prosecution despite being in London for over four years.
According to Qatar-based network,
Al Jazeera, the former minister may have purchased a $2.2m choice property near
the United Nations in upscale Manhattan, New York, for the Dominican Prime
Minister in order to obtain the passport.
In a documentary titled,
‘Diplomats for sale’, Al Jazeera reveals how politically exposed persons,
including leaders of international drug cartels, purchase diplomatic passports
from Caribbean countries for a fee which ranges between $250,000 and $2m
depending on the personality involved.
The bribe is usually paid to the
leader of that country who then appoints the buyer as an ambassador or a
diplomat. The buyer is subsequently issued with a diplomatic passport which
gives him or her immunity from prosecution based on the Vienna Convention of
1961.
According to the news agency,
shortly before Diezani left office, there were already reports that she had
allegedly stolen billions of dollars.
Worried that the incoming
President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration might probe her, the former
minister allegedly fled to London and obtained a diplomatic passport from the
Prime Minister of Dominican Republic himself.
The report stated, “In London,
she (Diezani) is personally handed a Dominican diplomatic passport by Prime
Minister Skerrit; a passport which could shield her from criminal charges. We
found documents showing a few days later that a shell company is formed in
Delaware, an American state where laws mean the true owners of a company are
kept secret.
“Four months later, that shell
company buys a New York apartment for $2.2m with no mortgage. Property records
confirm that the prime minister’s wife, Melissa, was a resident. Photos placed
the Skerrit family there. Both Diezani and Skerrit deny any links to the
company that bought the apartment.
“Skerrit said the family resided
there due to a kind gesture by an unnamed friend of his wife. He strongly
denies any wrongdoing and says he didn’t demand or receive any money from
Madueke.”
The 53-minute documentary also
shows how countries like St. Lucia, Antigua and Grenada all in the Caribbean
carry out such “diplomatic passport for cash” scam.
The Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission had in March lamented the slow pace at which the United Kingdom was
handling Diezani’s case.
The EFCC in a statement said it
was baffling that after four years, Diezani had still not had her day in court.
The statement read in part, “We
are intent on bringing Diezani to justice and despite the spirited efforts of
the commission in ensuring that she returns to Nigeria and face trial, she has
been held back in the UK by an investigation that has spanned almost four years
without any signal about when she will be available in Nigeria for prosecution.
“The EFCC has been frustrated
over Diezani, a development that prompted it to seek her extradition to
Nigeria, so that she can have her day in court.”
The former minister is alleged to
have diverted billions of dollars and purchased choice properties in several
parts of the world.
Diezani’s cash and properties as
well as those linked to her, worth over $250m, including jewellery, have been
forfeited permanently to the Federal Government by an order of court.
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