Former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke, has appealed to the Federal High Court in Abuja, requesting that the court stop the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) from selling off her seized assets.
In the court documents submitted through her legal team, led by Chief Mike Ozekhome, SAN, Diezani argues that the EFCC’s decision to auction off her assets, following a notice issued in 2023, violates her fundamental right to a fair hearing.
She is also asking the court to compel the anti-graft agency to retrieve any properties already sold.
Diezani claims the EFCC’s actions are based on final forfeiture orders granted by various courts, but she insists that these orders were made through misrepresentations and concealment of important facts.
She states that she was never properly served with legal notices or involved in the proceedings that led to the forfeiture orders.
The former minister further contests the legality of the forfeiture orders, arguing that they were obtained under questionable circumstances and should be set aside.
She also points out that she has never been convicted of any crime linked to the seized assets, and that the sale of her properties is unjustified.
“In many cases, the final forfeiture orders were made against properties which affected the Applicant’s interest, the courts were misled into making the final order of forfeiture against the Applicant, based on 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 thus 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,” Diezani said in part.
