Barely three days after the Federal government confiscated her multi-million dollar mansion on Banana Island, Lagos, former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, has again lost a huge sum of money to the authorities.
A Federal High Court in Lagos ordered the interim forfeiture of N7,646,700,000 deposited in Sterling Bank Plc, allegedly by Mrs. Alison-Madueke.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), in an ex parte application, told Justice Chuka Obiozor’s court that the N7.6billion was part of the $153,310,000 which Diezani allegedly siphoned from the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) sometime in 2014.
The anti-graft agency also alleged that the former Petroleum Minister stashed some of the money in three Nigerian banks but that the Federal government had since February 2016, through an order granted by Justice Muslim Hassan, also of the Federal High Court, taken possession of part of the money from the other banks.
It declared that the Federal Government had recovered N23.4billion, $5million and another N9.08billion out of the $153.3million and therefore, prayed the court to order Sterling Bank to remit to the Federal Government the N7.6billion still in its vaults.
Justice Obiozor granted the order and directed the commission to cause it to be published.
The judge then adjourned to August 28, 2017 for Sterling Bank and any other interested party to appear before him and convince the court why the money should not be permanently forfeited to the Federal Government.