PEOPLES GAZETTE
“The publications are blatantly false and misleading,” she said in the suit noting that the EFCC and AGF defamed her by claiming she is corrupt.
On Friday, a former minister of petroleum resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke, slammed a N100 billion defamation lawsuit against the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in connection with a series of publications by the anti-graft agency alleging she stole billions while in office.
According to the court document, which was filed on May 26 and obtained by the Gazette, Mrs Alison-Madueke accused the EFCC of publishing multiple reports in a manner that portrayed her “as a common looter of national money and a debased and corrupt public officer.
In the suit marked CV/6273/2023 and filed before a High court at the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) through a team of lawyers led by Mike Ozekhome, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), the former minister is demanding the sum of N100 billion as damages against the EFCC and the AGF for the false, injurious, malicious and libellous publications”.
Mrs Alison-Madueke is the claimant and the EFCC is the sole respondent, while the Attorney General of the Federation is the second defendant in the suit.
“The publications are blatantly false and misleading,” she said in the suit noting that the EFCC and AGF defamed her by claiming she is corrupt.
Mrs Alison-Madueke served as Minister of Transportation (and then Mines and Steel Development) under late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua from 2007 to 2009 before becoming Petroleum Minister under President Goodluck Jonathan from 2010 to 2015.
However, in what appears to be a rebuttal to the EFCC’s ongoing investigations into Mrs Alison-Madueke, the Gazette in this report highlights five publications of corruption allegations that Mrs Alison-Madueke claims were false and intended to lower her reputation and integrity.
EFCC uncovers additional $2.5 billion, N47.2 million and $72.8 million in Fidelity Bank
In the case where the EFCC said it uncovered an additional $72,870,000 million connected to its investigation from Mrs Alison-Madueke, the latter in its suit described the publication as false information stating that the EFCC published the information without any scintilla of proof.
She said for such “an incredulous volume of cash of N47.2 billion,” to have been stolen only the CBN could house such a humongous sum of cash. Yet they recklessly made such unfounded allegations.
Mrs Alison-Madueke, therefore, challenged that the EFCC should have made the videos to the public of the N47.2 billion recovered.
“The 1st Defendant should have made the videos of this N47.2 billion cash discovery public which would have made a good viewing to the general public and further calls upon those that discovered the alleged money to tell the public where exactly the money has been since kept.”
She also states that no money whatsoever to the sum of $72.8 million was ever discovered in Fidelity Bank that is associated with her, which she purportedly stole from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC.
EFCC traces N47.2 billion, $487.5 million to ex-minister Diezani Alison-Madueke
In the report which was published in August 2017 across several online and print newspapers, the EFCC alleged it traced at least N47.2 billion and $ 487.5 million in cash and properties to the former minister of petroleum resources.
Mrs Alison-Madueke in her suit only denied the revelation as false, saying it was also intended to tarnish her image, but did not give any specifics to prove how the EFCC lied in its statement.
