Court orders final forfeiture of $37.5m Diezani’s Lagos property

A Federal High Court in Lagos on Monday ordered that the $37.5million mansion on Banana Island, Ikoyi, Lagos, linked to Diezani Alison-Madueke, a former Minister of Petroleum Resources, be permanently forfeited to the Federal Government.

The court also ordered that the sum of $2,740,197.96 and N84, 537, 840.70 reportedly realised as rents on the property should be forfeited to the government.

Justice Chuka Obiozor gave the order following a motion on notice presented before him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

The EFCC had on July 19, 2017, obtained a court order to temporarily seize the property designated as Building 3, Block B, Bella Vista Plot 1, Zone N, Federal Government Layout, Banana Island Foreshore Estate, said to have 24 apartments, 18 flats and six penthouses.

The court had then directed that the temporary forfeiture order be published in a newspaper, even as it adjourned the matter till Monday, for anyone interested in the property and funds to appear to convince the court on why they should not be permanently forfeited to the government.

Anselem Ozioko, the EFCC’s counsel, on Monday told Justice Obiozor that the publication order had been complied with, noting that despite going the extra length to personally serve the respondent, a company, Rusimpex Limited, they did not show up in court to contest the forfeiture order.

Justice Obiozro, in a short ruling, held: “In the face of the publication, which I find in Exhibit B of the affidavit of compliance before me, and there being no responses from any interested party, I have no other option but to grant the orders as prayed.”

The EFCC had earlier told the judge that the Banana Island mansion was reasonably suspected to have been acquired with proceeds of alleged unlawful activities by Alison-Madueke.

The anti-graft agency said its investigations had revealed that the former minister purchased the property sometime in 2013 at the cost of $37.5million, which she reportedly paid in cash.

According to the EFCC, the $37.5million was moved directly from Alison-Madueke’s house in Abuja and paid into the seller’s First Bank account in Abuja.

“Nothing could be more suspicious than someone keeping such huge amount in her apartment. Why was she doing that? To avoid attention.

“We are convinced beyond reasonable doubt, because, as at the time this happened, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke was still in public service as the Minister of Petroleum Resources,” the EFCC lawyer, Ozioko, had told Justice Obiozor.
The EFCC had earlier informed the court that the Banana Island mansion was reasonably suspected to have been acquired with proceeds of unlawful activities by Diezani.

Listed as respondents in the forfeiture application were Alison-Madueke; a legal practitioner, Afamefuna Nwokedi, and a company, Rusimpex Limited.

In a 41-paragraph affidavit attached to the application, Abdulrasheed Bawa, an investigative officer with the EFCC, explained that Nwokedi, in connivance with Alison Madueke, purposely incorporated the company, Rusimpex Limited, on September 11 , 2013 to facilitate the alleged fraud.

Bawa said that when Nwokedi was questioned by the EFCC, the lawyer explained that he had approached Alison-Madueke for opportunities in the oil and gas industry, but that the ex-minister told him that being a lawyer, she did not have any such opportunity for him and asked him whether he could in the alternative manage landed properties, an offer which, he, Nwokedi, said he accepted.

Bawa averred that Nwokedi later registered Rusimpex Limited at the Corporate Affairs Commission, wherein a lawyer in his law firm, Adetula Ayokunle, and a Russian, Vladmir Jourauleu, were listed as the directors, while the address of Nwokedi’s law firm in Ikoyi, Lagos, was listedas the business address of the company.

The investigator added that when Ayokunle was questioned by the EFCC, he explained that he only appended his signature on the CAC documents at his boss’s instruction, while Jourauleu denied knowledge of the company.

The investigator said: “Sometime in 2013, the former Minister of Petroleum Resources, MrsDiezani Alison-Madueke, invited Barrister Afamefuna Nwokedi, the Principal Counsel of Stillwaters Law Firm, to her house in Abuja for a meeting where she informed the said Barrister Afamefuna Nwokedi to incorporate a company and use same as a front to manage landed properties on her behalf without using her name in any of the incorporation documents.

“She further directed Mr Afamefuna Nwokedi to meet with Mr Bisi Onasanya, the Group Managing Director of First Bank of Nigeria Plc for that purpose.

“Mr. Stephen Onasanya was invited by the commission and he came and volunteered an extra-judicial statement wherein he stated that he marketed a property at Bella Vista, Banana Island, Ikoyi, Lagos, belonging to Mr. Youseff Fattau of Ibatex Nigeria Limited to Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke and Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke later bought the property from Mr. Youseff Fattau, through her lawyer, Mr. Afamefuna Nwokedi (who she introduced to him) and that payment for the said property was made through the Abuja office of First Bank of Nigeria Plc.

“First Bank of Nigeria Plc, through Mr. Barau Muazu, wrote to the commission and also volunteered an extra-judicial statement in writing that they made the payments totalling US$37, 500, 000 to Ibatex Nigeria Limited and YF Construction Development and Real Estate Limited on behalf of Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke and that they collected the entire cash from Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke at her residence of No. 10, Fredrick Chiluba Close of Jose Marti Street, Asokoro, Abuja, and paid into the First Bank of Nigeria Plc account of Ibatex and YF Construction Development and Real Estate Limited on her instruction.”