Nigeria’s former petroleum minister, Diezani Alison Maduekwe has vowed not to return to Nigeria from the UK where she fled to, to face trial over allegations of financial crimes levelled against her by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.
Diezani insists she has done no wrong and is staying put in the UK, for as long as it will take.
However, tired of playing the waiting game, the EFCC in 2017 went ahead to try her in absentia. They have secured temporary forfeiture of a lot of her assets, including a block of luxury flats in Banana Island in Lagos.
They have also had some of her accounts frozen with sums lodged in various currencies ( $2.74m and N84.54m) said to have been part of the rents paid for the luxury flats.
Still, Diezani has not budged, and it appears the EFCC is unable to secure her extradition. And so the anti- graft agency continues to seize and withhold anything that is in any way connected to Diezani.
In July, the federal government was granted leave by a Federal High Court to take over a plot of land in Port Harcourt belonging to the former minister. The latest haul-in though, is what Diezani is not finding funny any longer. Same July, her two thousand, one hundred and forty-nine pieces of jewelry were seized by the EFCC. Diezani’s jewelry collection includes 497 expensive bangles and bracelets , 189 expensive watches, and 315 expensive rings, among other items.
On July 5, 2019 the Federal High Court sitting in Ikoyi, Lagos granted the request of the EFCC for the temporary forfeiture of all the jewelry seized in Diezani’s residence. The jewelry is valued at $40m and includes some personalized pieces, as well as a customised phone.
This temporary forfeiture has lasted too long for Diezani’s patience. For a start, she has maintained that the entry into her residence by the EFCC was illegal, and that her jewelry was carted away without any court order. Diezani has now also taken the matter to court.
She made an appeal in an application filed on her behalf at the Federal High Court in Lagos, saying that the EFCC violated her fundamental right to own property and to appropriate same at her discretion. She is now asking the court to reject the prayer of the EFCC to permanently forfeit her jewelry to the federal government. She is asking the court to order that her jewelry be returned to her.
It is worthy of note that in the same week of Deziani’s application, Nigeria’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, president of the Dangote Group was reported on Radio Tamale in Ghana as saying that he avoids luxury things because they are a distraction. Bearing in mind that as at March 2019, Dangote was worth $10 billion , then he is someone that a little luxury would not dent !
In contrast, the flamboyant female former minister has been missing her bling- bling sorely. Among her requests, she is also asking for the return of her customised, gold iPhone seized by the EFCC.
All told, the final say lies with the courts, which so far have said nothing, and returned nothing.
Nevertheless and in all fairness ; in the absence of any reports of theft of jewelry , then a woman’s jewelry collection will consist of gifts, heirlooms and items personally purchased . Taking that into consideration, then for this jewelry, I would recommend a ‘temporary’ return , even as other assets remain frozen!
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