Diezani Alison-Madueke, former minister of petroleum resources, has filed
a libel suit against the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC)
and the attorney-general of the federation (AGF) demanding to be paid
damages of N100 billion over claims that she is corrupt.
In a writ of summons filed on her
behalf at a federal high court sitting in Abuja by a team of lawyers led by
Mike Ozekhome, a senior advocate, on May 26, 2023 and seen by TheCable,
Alison-Madueke also demanded that the EFCC and the AGF should be compelled to
apologise to her in three national newspapers “for the false, injurious,
malicious and libelous publications” against her since 2015 when she left the
country.
She listed statements and
publications issued by the EFCC which she said were intended to lower her
reputation and integrity and which she said did indeed lower her reputation and
integrity “in the estimation of right-thinking members of the society within
and outside Nigeria” and also brought her into “public ridicule, odium,
contempt, derision and obloquy”.
The defamatory reports, as she claimed, are:
- A publication on December 16, 2021, “Diezani: EFCC
uncovers additional $72.8 million in Bank”
- A publication on August 8, 2017, “Unbelievable!!!
EFCC traces N47.2 Billion, $487.5 Million to ex-Minister Diezani
Alison-Madueke”
- A publication, “By virtue of an order of the Federal
High Court of Nigeria sitting in Abuja, Diezani Alison Madueke, had forfeited
to the Federal Government of Nigeria, the sum of $40,000,000.00 (forty
million dollars) only, which jewelleries were found and recovered by the
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission in the premises of the Respondent
(Alison-Madueke) and reasonably suspected to have been acquired with
proceeds of the Respondent’s unlawful activities”, made by the court on
January 24, 2022, relying on the “false information” made available to the
court by the EFCC in a court process dated and filed on July 4, 2019, and
widely published in the media.
- A publication titled “By virtue of an order of the
Federal High Court of Nigeria, sitting in Abuja, the Prosecution Counsel
to liaise with the office of the Attorney General of the Federation
towards the extradition of the Defendant”, made by the court on October
28, 2020, relying on the “false information” made available to the court
by the EFCC in a court process dated and filed on November 13, 2018, and
widely published in the media.
- Claims and publication made by the EFCC on December
16, 2021 to the effect that it had uncovered an additional $72.8 Million
in a bank purportedly belonging to her.
- A “false and defamatory statement” made by the EFCC
and concerning her on or about February 17, 2022 to the effect that she
should be extradited for stealing a sum of $2.5 billion belonging to the
Nigerian government.
- A “false and defamatory statement” made by the EFCC
concerning her on or about August 8, 2017, to the effect that she has
embezzled the sum of 2Billion belonging to the Nigerian government.
Alison-Madueke was minister of
transportation (and later mines and steel development) from 2007 to 2009 under
President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua before serving as petroleum minister under
President Goodluck Jonathan from 2010 to 2015.
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Abeg sues them let them prove you guilty. Is a shame to Nigerian government for their failure to prosecute this woman deligently with a sufficient evidence , see what she is demanding, just for EFCC's epileptic investigation
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