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Former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke
The absence of the presiding judge in the suit filed by a former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke, to challenge the order obtained by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission for final forfeiture of her seized assets was on Monday stalled.
The matter, which was to be heard before Justice Inyang Ekwo of the Federal High Court in Abuja, was adjourned till November 21 as the presiding judge was said to be attending a seminar at the National Judicial Institute in Abuja.
Diezani, through her counsel, Chief Mike Ozekhome (SAN), sued EFCC in the suit marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/21/2023, dated and filed January 6, 2023 where she sought five orders from the court.
The former minister, in the motion, sought an order of court to extend the time for her to seek leave to apply for an order to set aside the anti-graft agency’s public notice issued to conduct a public sale on her property.
She argued that the various orders were issued without jurisdiction and “ought to be set aside ex debito justitiae.”
She also claimed that she was neither served with the charge sheet and proof of evidence in any of the charges nor any other summons regarding the criminal charges brought against her.
She maintained that the courts were misled into making several final forfeiture orders on her assets through suppression or non-disclosure of material facts.
“The several applications upon which the courts made the final order of forfeiture against the applicant were obtained upon gross misstatements, misrepresentations, non-disclosure, concealment and suppression of material facts, and this honourable court has the power to set aside same ex debito justitiae, as a void order is as good as if it was never made at all.
“The orders were made without recourse to the constitutional right to fair hearing and right to property accorded the applicant by the constitution.
“The applicant was never served with the processes of court in all the proceedings that led to the order of final forfeiture,” she argued.
Diezani also said that she was not given a fair hearing in the proceedings that led to the issuance of the orders.
She argued that the orders were issued in breach of her right to fair hearin
Meanwhile, EFCC, in its counter-affidavit deposed to by Mr Rufai Zaki, a detective with the commission and a member of the team that investigated the case of criminal conspiracy, official corruption and money laundering preferred against Diezani and other persons in the case prayed the court to dismiss her application.
According to Zaki, the investigation conducted by his team clearly showed that the former minister was involved in some acts of criminality.
Adopting their contentions in charge number: FHC/ABJ/CR/208/2018, dated November 14, 2018, the anti-graft agency claimed most of the depositions in Diezani’s suit were untrue.
A former chairman of EFCC, Abdulrasheed Bawa, had revealed that $153 million and over 80 property had been recovered from the ex-minister.
She was alleged to have escaped to the United Kingdom and remained there after her exit from office as the petroleum minister, an office she held between 2010 and 2015 under the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan.
The former minister also filed another suit seeking N100 billion in compensation from the EFCC for what she describes as libelous publications stemming from multiple suits filed against her by the EFCC.
