A Magistrates Court in London yesterday granted an application by the National Crime Agency (NCA) to impound 27,000 pounds seized from Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, the immediate past Minister of Petroleum in Nigeria.
The cash was seized under Section 295 of Proceeds of Crime Act 2012. The money was seized from Diezani after a raid in her London House as part of the agency’s investigation. The Westminster Court on Marylebone Road said the money would be held in the custody of the court until April 5, 2016.
In its ruling, the Magistrate court granted the prayer that will allow the police office to continue their investigation on the former minister over the allegation. Against the believe that former Petroleum Minister, Diezani Alison Madueke was charged to court in London on Monday, UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) insisted that the former minister had not been charged yet. A spokesman for the agency who gave his name simply as Stuart, told Daily Trust in a telephone chat that none of the five people arrested on Friday as part of an investigation into suspected bribery and money laundering offences had been charged to court. “I can confirm to you that none of the people arrested and granted bail on Friday has been charged to court”, he said, stressing that the suspects were still on bail.
The spokesman, who declined to comment on whether the ex-minister reported at the Charing Cross Police Station on Monday as scheduled, said he would not reveal the identity of suspects before they were charged to court. A score of journalists, activists and some “concerned” Nigerians besieged the Charing Cross Police station as early as 7:30 am to catch a glimpse of the former minister entering or leaving, but were disappointed as she failed to show up after waiting for several hours.
In a related case, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) yesterday arrested Jide Omokore, owner of Atlantic Energy who is an associate of the former minister. Mr. Jide Omokore is being investigated on allegations of money laundering and conspiracy to siphon billions of naira in fraudulent oil industry contracts while Diezani Alison-Madueke was minister. Omokore allegedly used his companies to facilitate bogus oil swap deals that cost the country billions of naira.
According to the Punch, the United Kingdom police got interested in the former minister and a former Managing Director of a parastatal under the NNPC when they each bought a house in the London. According to the report, ex-minister’s house cost £12.5m.
The Punch source explained that the police suspected that the mortgaged London properties might have been serviced with laundered money from the Government of Nigeria. “This particular investigation did not originate from Nigeria. I can tell you that this is different from the investigation being conducted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission into the financial operations of the NNPC under Alison-Madueke.
“This is a strictly UK investigation and it has to do with the procurement of a property in the UK for £12.5m through a mortgage arrangement in London. “The UK authorities became suspicious when they realized that the agreed monthly amount for the mortgage was too high for the income of a public official without other sources of income.
Even though the identity of the 4 persons arrested with Mrs. Diezani has not been revealed by the UK authorities, investigations have shown the 4 includes; Alison-Madueke’s mother, Beatrice Agama; Ugonna Madueke; and a Swiss, Melanie Spencer. The fourth person is very likely to be Haruna Momoh, former Managing Director of the Petroleum Products Marketing Company.
