Diezani Alison-Madueke was been arrested in the United Kingdom on suspicion of bribery and money laundering offenses, an official in the Nigerian presidency said.
Advertisement
“On #diezani watch this morning”.
Anti-graft investigators with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission are now interrogating a former managing director of one of the subsidiaries of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation and three former executive directors of the oil corporation under ex-Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke.
Recently, President Muhammadu Buhari vowed to trace and recover “mind boggling” sums that have been stolen from the oil sector.
When asked if the former minister and others arrested with her were charged to a Magistrate’s Court before her passport was seized, he simply said: “Anything related to this, I’m not allowed to tell because we’ve been instructed not to give any information about this”. The four were said to be “very close” to Alison-Madueke while in office.
Mrs Alison-Madueke was Petroleum Minister between 2010 and 2015. She retained her position after the House of Representative investigated the scandal and indicted the minister.
“For this reason, government is only confirming active collaboration”.
Per Second News reports that a source in the Buhari administration said that the government will in a couple of days request for Diezani’s extradition to Nigeria, after the U.K National Crime Agency completes its case against her.
In 2009, the Senate also indicted Mrs. Alison-Madueke and recommended her for prosecution for allegedly transferring N1.2 billion into a private account of a toll company without due process.
Advertisement
The former minister consistently denied any wrongdoing.
