- Says, “I Have Nothing To Do With $52.8m Loot”
By Abiola Olawale
Diezani Alison-Madueke, who previously served as Minister of Petroleum Resources in Nigeria, has publicly distanced herself from the humongous of $52.8 million that was recently returned to Nigeria from the United States.
The former Minister, in a press statement released through her counsel, Prof. Mike Ozekhome, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria(SAN), maintained that the said money does not belong to her, rather it belongs to Kola Aluko, a business associate of Jide Omokore who together ran one of Nigeria’s most dubious business deal called SAA that cost to loss billions of United States dollars.
This comes after the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi had announced that the Federal Government of Nigeria received $52.88 million in recovered assets allegedly linked to Alison-Madueke.
Fagbemi stated that the recovery is part of ongoing efforts to reclaim funds and assets allegedly misappropriated during her tenure.
However, in a statement titled “There is no such thing as Diezani Loot,” Alison-Madueke claimed the money that was reportedly linked to her belongs to Nigeria’s oil magnate, Kola Aluko.
Alison-Madueke explained the origins of the looted funds, stating that the substantial amount of $52.8 million purportedly originated from a vessel that had been seized by the American government from a man named Kola Aluko.
She elaborated that after the seizure, the vessel was subsequently sold, and the proceeds from that sale were returned to the Federal Government of Nigeria.
Describing the reports that linked her to the repatriated money as false, the ex-minister said the purveyors of the information were hellbent on tarnishing her image, adding that she had nothing to do with the purchase, use, and sale of the seized vessel.
The statement reads in part: “We note with concern the recent deliberate attempt to link her with what has been described as a civil forfeiture of a yacht Galactica, the sale of which was said to have yielded $52.8m to the US government; which sum has since been repatriated to, Nigeria.
‘This is a clear example of the mischievous and cruel sport of tarnishing the image of the lady through a bouquet of consistent, persistent, and unrelenting cocktail of falsehoods and misinformation.
“The purveyors of this line of misinformation term it “name-and-shame”. To sell the storyline, the architects ensured they attached Diezani’s name to a recovered yacht which is not in any way linked to her.
“They now falsely termed it “Diezani loot”. Nothing of the sort ever happened. She was never involved in the purchase, use, and sale of the said yacht.
“The yacht Galactica, from information readily available in the public domain and in open sources, was purchased by Mr Kola Aluko who had used the vessel until he agreed to its forfeiture to the United States of America.”
She said that the SAA deals were never awarded by her as she was not part of the NNPC management, stressing that whatever happened, there were not her doing.
