EFCC: We’ve recovered $153m, properties worth $80m from Diezani

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) says it has secured the final forfeiture of over $80 million worth of properties owned by Diezani Alison-Madueke, a former minister of petroleum resources.

The anti-graft agency had filed charges of money laundering against Alison-Madueke who left the country for the UK shortly before the inception of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.

Ibrahim Magu, former EFCC chairman, had said Alison-Madueke stole “not less than $2.5 billion”. 

Speaking when he featured on One-on-One, a programme on Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), Abdulrasheed Bawa, Magu’s successor, said the agency has also recovered $153 million from her.

He said the EFCC is still working on extraditing her, adding that “the case has certainly not been abandoned”.

“There are several cases surrounding that. As you may have read, I was part of that investigation, and we have done quite a lot. In one of the cases, we recovered $153million; we have secured the final forfeiture of over 80 properties in Nigeria valued at about $80million,” Bawa said.

“We have done quite a bit on that. The other cases as it relates to the $115million INEC bribery as the media has sensationalised it, is also ongoing across the Federation. We are looking forward to the time when we will, maybe, have her in the country, and of course review things and see what will happen going forward.”

In 2019, a federal high court ordered the permanent forfeiture of $40 million worth of jewelry seized from Alison-Madueke’s residence.

A federal high court in Abuja had threatened to strike out fraud charges brought against Alison-Madueke over her continued absence.