Diezanigate: ‘Bid to seize properties, beginning of legal troubles with US’

A former United States State Department specialist, Mr Mathew Page, has said that a civil forfeiture case to seize assets worth $144 million from two cronies of former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs Diezani Alison-Madueke, may just be the beginning of her legal troubles with the US.

The US Justice Department last week filed an asset recovery suit in Houston against Jide Omokore and Kola Aluko, seeking the seizure of luxury property, including a New York apartment and $80million super-yacht, owned by Aluko

Omokore and Aluko allegedly bribed Alison-Madueke in return for oil contracts.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) also quoted Page as saying that, “Although this is the first attempt by US law enforcement to go after assets allegedly stolen by Diezani and her henchmen, it almost certainly will not be the last.”
At present, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is prosecuting Diezani on various charges in Nigeria but her name has appeared in a growing number of international cases that lift the lid on the massive scale of corruption in Nigeria’s oil sector.

Since leaving office in 2015, she has been implicated in bribery, fraud, misuse of public funds, and money laundering cases in Nigeria, Britain, Italy and the United States.

But the first female president of the global oil cartel OPEC — who was one of Africa’s most prominent politicians —has denied the allegations, which involved billions of dollars siphoned from oil deals and state coffers.

In one case filed by the EFCC in February, Alison-Madueke was accused of diverting some $153 million from the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) coffers.

It is also instructive to note that there are ongoing suits filed by the EFCC against some prominent Nigerians including INEC officials in which about N23billion of NNPC money is alleged to have been used by Diezani to influence the 2015 presidential election to keep former President Goodluck Jonathan in power.

Last week, prosecutors in Lagos began proceedings to recover $1.76 billion of assets owned by Kola Aluko and Jide Omokore, whose companies were awarded oil contracts by Diezani.

Last Wednesday, another judge in Lagos ordered the forfeiture of the former minister’s $37.5 million luxury Lagos property, saying it was purchased with ill-gotten funds.

Meanwhile, Italian prosecutors have alleged that she and Jonathan received kickbacks from oil majors ENI and Shell as part of a $1.3-billion deal for an offshore oil block – OPL 245.

Charges relating to the same oil block deal have also been filed against the oil majors and some senior politicians.

Though Jonathan and Diezani are not named in the suit but the former president is under pressure from the House of Representatives to answer questions about the “Malabu deal”.