The corruption charges against Former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke may assume some fresh changes to accommodate fresh details that the loads of case files subpoenaed from 10 US banks might avail the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in proceeding with her allegedly tricky trial, The New Diplomat learnt
The filing of fresh charges is being considered following evidence reportedly obtained by investigators after a New York Judge, Lorna Schofield, acceded to Nigeria’s request to subpoena the 10 banks to enable them access account statements of some officials who worked under the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan with alleged links to the crooked deals, and subsequent arbitration awarded to Process and Industrial Development (P&ID) up to the tune of $9.6bn (N3.7trn).
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New EFCC Spokesman, Mr. Dele Oyewale, while reacting to The New Diplomat’s inquiry on how the Commission aims to further its prosecution against Diezani in the light of fresh revelations coming from the 10 US banks, noted that “investigations are ongoing.”
However, the Federal government’s decision to subpoena 10 banks was to enable Nigeria examine the suspected foreign accounts with a view to establishing or otherwise that the $9.6bn arbitration was fraudulently obtained by the Engineering firm — Process and Industrial Development (P&ID), and is consequently not qualified in Law to demand for the said payment.
The banks involved are “Citibank, N.A. (Citibank), Allied Irish Banks (Allied Irish), HSBC Bank USA (HSBC), Standard New York, Inc. (Standard New York), Deutsche Bank Trust Co. Americas (Deutsche Bank), J.P. Morgan Chase (JPMorgan), United Bank for Africa (UBA), Bank of Cyprus, Fortis Private Banking Singapore Limited (Fortis), and Standard Chartered International (USA) Ltd. (Standard Chartered).”
Former President Jonathan, his wife, Mrs. Patience and Diezani are said to be on the list of officials being investigated to ascertain their roles in the P&ID deal by obtaining details ferreted from the US banks.
The US court documents noted that there is no direct evidence that Jonathan and other co-accused persons took funds from P&ID and its subsidiaries. However, reports say the 10 banks are “likely to have processed US dollar transactions connected to P&ID’s operations as either correspondent banks or the New York branches of foreign lenders,” which will either reveal their involvement or establish their innocence.
The P&ID case files, The New Diplomat gathered will further enable EFCC to establish some hitherto charges against Diezani that have been lacking solid evidence. For instance, an amended charge might feature some associates of the former minister who reportedly have links with the litany of allegations against her.
Aside the reported links of controversial businessman, Jide Omokore and Kola Aluko to the checklist of corruption allegations hanging on Diezani, a cousin to the former Minister, Kaysle Agama who allegedly benefited from several contracts awarded through the Presidential Amnesty Programme under the Niger Delta ministry has been reportedly linked to certain deals and is currently believed to be under the EFCC radar.
At the Abuja Division of the federal High Court, the Commission had, in November 2018, filed 14-count charges bordering on money laundering against the the former minister, accusing her of unlawfully taking into her possession the sums of $39.7m and N3.32bn with which she allegedly bought choice properties in Abuja, Lagos and Port Harcourt in Rivers, while in office.
Speaking at a press conference in March, EFCC Acting Chairman, Ibrahim Magu had alleged that Alison-Madueke stole not less than $2.5 billion from the federal government’s coffers. The former Minister has been in the UK since 2015, shortly before the onset of President Muhammadu Buhari administration.
“This woman has stolen so much, not less than 2.5 billion dollars, but unfortunately she has generation of looters who are supporting her. This is not good.
“We are in touch with the international community, she is under protective custody, otherwise, we would have arrested her, return her to Nigeria,” Magu said.
In 2017, a federal high court in Lagos ordered the forfeiture of N7.6 billion allegedly linked to her to the federal government.
Similarly, last week, the EFCC handed over one of the luxury flats which it had seized from the former Petroleum Minister to the Lagos State Government to be used as one of its Covid-19 isolation centres.
