‘I had aggressive breast cancer and did two operations’ — Diezani tells court why she’s in the UK

Diezani Alison-Madueke has informed a federal high court in the Abuja division that she had been away from the country since May 2015 because of cancer treatment.

In a writ of summons against the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the attorney-general of the federation (AGF) marked CV/6273/2023 and seen by TheCable, the former three-time minister is asking for damages of N100 billion “for the false, injurious, malicious and libelous publications”.

She said the EFCC and AGF defamed her by claiming she is corrupt.

The former minister of petroleum resources said toward the end of the tenure of the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan in 2015, she was diagnosed with “the most aggressive form of breast cancer” which she identified as “Triple Negative Cancer”.

She said she hurriedly flew to England on May 22, 2015 “in order to undertake a critical course of treatment, which consisted of two operations, eight months of intensive chemotherapy and five weeks of radiotherapy”.

Since then, she said in the court papers, she has remained in England “undergoing medical care and treatment”.

The suit, marked CV/6273/23, was file by her counsel, Mike Ozekhome, a senior advocate.

The EFCC and AGF were given 14 days from the service of the summons to enter their defence.

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.