How UK-based Nigerian helped Diezani ‘acquire choice property in London’

Adeyemi Edun, a London estate agent, allegedly helped Diezani Alison-Madueke, to buy property worth millions of pounds.

According to This is Money, a UK financial website, Edun, who is the sole director of Daniel Ford, an estate agency in Kings Cross, London, assisted in the purchase of three London property linked to asset recovery cases in Nigeria, UK and US.

The report said court documents filed in the US showed how three Nigerian businessmen bought a £8.3million UK property for the former minister of petroleum resources, in March 2011.

US investigators alleged that these property were given to her “for the corrupt purpose of inducing her to use her influence within the ministry of petroleum resources… to direct the award of business opportunities”.

The businessmen’s companies all received oil deals and they were alleged to have funded a lavish lifestyle for Alison-Madueke.

In July, TheCable had reported that a civil forfeiture notice filed by the US department of justice (DOJ)  showed that Jide Omokore and Kola Aluko, both associates of Diezani, made payments for flat rents and chauffeur services.

The US DOJ had said Aluko paid £537,922 as rent for two flats between August 2011 and January 2014 and between December-July 2014.

Aluko and Tekna, another company owned by him, paid £393,274 for car hire.

The notice also said Omokore and Energy Property Development Ltd paid at least £4,424 to the chauffeur company.

Adeyemi Edun was alleged to have received more than $5.5million in cash from Alison-Madueke to buy property for her in Lagos in May 2011.

When contacted on phone, Edun said he could not discuss the matter as it was “subject to ongoing investigation”.

“Everything is done within the ambit of regulation, that I can say,” he was quoted as saying.

“You have to be very sure the name you are referring to is actually mine, because it is common in a country of 180 million people.”

Nwankwo Kanu, former Nigerian footballer, also used the same property agency.

However, there is no suggestion in the documents that Daniel Ford or Edun committed money laundering or that they were aware of such.