At the Federal High Court in Abuja, former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, has filed a petition to stop EFCC officials from selling all assets which were seized from her.
Filing her case through a team of lawyers under the leadership of Chief Mike Ozekhome, SAN, Diezani urged the court to ask the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to retrieve any and all her assets which they have already sold out.
“In many cases, the final forfeiture orders were made against properties which affected the Applicant’s interest, the courts were misled into making the final order of forfeiture against the Applicant, based on suppression or non-disclosure of materials facts.
“The several applications upon which the courts made the final order of forfeiture against the Applicant were obtained upon gross misstatements, misrepresentations, non-disclosure, concealment and suppression of material facts and thus court has the power to set aside same ex-debito justitiae, as a void order is as good as if it was never made at all,” Diezani narrated.
In her case file, the erstwhile minister stated that despite claims by the EFCC that final order of forfeiture was granted against her seized properties, she never saw any evidence.
She further accused the agency of having acquired the forfeiture order through “misrepresentations and concealment of facts”.
Meanwhile, in a counter-affidavit by one of EFCC’s detectives, Oyakhilome Ekienabor, the agency denied all claims.
In the affidavit, Ekienabor revealed that the order of forfeiture was issued by Justice C.A. Obiozor of the Federal High court on July 9, 2019.
He also revealed that another order was made by Justice I. N. Oweibo, on September 10, 2019.
Having been pending since 2023, the court resumed proceeding of the matter on Monday.
At the court, Mr. Godwin Iyibor, represented the applicant while Mr. Divine Okoro stood for the EFCC.
However, the chief judge, Justice Inyang Ekwo adjourned the case till March 27.
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