Police seize assets of former Dominican trade envoy Alison-Madueke

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August 10, 2017 at 5:57 AM

Diezani Alison Madueke, former Nigerian oil minister and Dominican trade envoy.

Abuja, Nigeria (TDN)
As Alison Madueke awaits her October court appearance in London, Nigerian authorities have begun seizing tens of millions of dollars’ worth of her assets. The once powerful former Nigerian oil minister and Dominican Ambassador for Trade and Investment is alleged to have embezzled hundreds of millions of dollars in Nigerian oil revenues and funneled the funds into her personal bank accounts or business associates. Dizani Alison-Madueke was Nigeria’s first female Minister of Petroleum Resources, serving under President Goodluck Jonathan from 2010 to March 2015. In May 2015, as British anti-corruption police launched a serious investigation into the former oil minister, she hastily arranged to purchase a diplomatic passport from Dominican Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit for an undisclosed sum. The passport was hand-delivered to Madueke in May 2015, and in exchange she was appointed Ambassador for Trade and Investment. However, her newfound diplomat status did not prevent her from being arrested by British authorities acting on behalf of the Nigerian government in October of that year. As she was not officially posted to the UK, she was unable to apply for immunity from arrest. She was arrested on suspicion of theft and money laundering. During her time as oil minister, Madueke was beset by a series of scandals. For example, she was widely believed to be behind the sacking of former central bank governor Lamido Sanusi after Sanusi claimed that the National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), which Madueke was in charge of, had failed to remit $20 billion to the national treasury. In another case, Madueke was accused of misappropriating about $153 million from NNPC coffers, and another case claimed that about 23 billion naira ($73 million) of NNPC funds were used to influence the 2015 presidential election to keep Jonathan in power. Last month, the US government launched proceedings to recover $144 million in assets believed to be in the country. These include a luxury yacht and New York City apartment purchased by Jide Omokore and Kola Aluko, two businessmen who were awarded a large number of contracts when Madueke was Nigeria’s oil minister. Nigerian prosecutors have also filed a case against the two businessmen to recover $1.76 billion in assets they own. In another case that exposed the extent of Madueke’s greed and money-making, a judge in Abuja ordered the confiscation of her $37.5 million Lagos mansion, saying it was purchased with state funds. Madueke’s troubles were further exacerbated when Italian prosecutors recently revealed that she and Goodluck Jonathan were suspected of receiving kickbacks from oil giants Eni and Shell as part of a $1.3 billion deal for Nigeria’s offshore oil blocks.

As the investigation into her activities expands, some in the Dominican Republic still hope for a public disclosure of how much she paid the Skerrit regime for the protection afforded by a diplomatic passport.