The former Minister of Petroleum, Diezani Alison-Madueke must be an evil- genius and the Nigerian state must be regarded as a jungle if all the allegations of corruption against her is true.
How on earth can one single individual amass so much and yet more as still being discovered? Surely, accountability and transparency are alien to those in government. The purported check and balance in a democratic governance is off the shores of Nigeria. It’s a country where anything goes. The world is laughing at us. It’s so easy to circumvent the rules and steal the nation dry. The big question is, can we recover of the stolen funds?
Cataloguing the number of corruption allegations against Mrs. Alison- Madueke will take the better of a day, yet the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) just revealed that it has traced about $1.5billion proceeds of crime to a Swiss account in connection with her and four other business associates.
A source told The Nation that Diezani allegedly used two shell companies to sell more than $1.5bn worth of Nigerian crude oil.
Four detectives also left Nigeria on Friday and have gained access to two exotic mansions belonging to the former Minister in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), ahead of an Assets Forfeiture process by the Federal Government.
The properties are located in E146 Emirates Hill Dubai and J5 Emirates Hill Dubai.
“So far investigation revealed that the $1.5billion was laundered into an account in Switzerland after passing through the United States. We have the details of how the cash was wired into the account by some oil firms”.
Our investigation confirmed that the account was used to disburse the slush funds to make exotic purchases and acquire properties in Nigeria and other parts of the world.
“The US Department of Justice through its Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative is already seeking to recover $144m in assets from some Diezani associates,” the source said.
It was learnt that Mrs Alison-Madueke’s posh mansions in Dubai was worth about 74million Dirham.
The source added: “Apart from the database made available to us by the UAE, there is no hiding place for Diezani, her associates and all the Politically Exposed Persons( PEPs) because the UAE has a Beneficial Ownership policy which will give details of those with assets, even if they are bought through proxies.”
