A suit filed by the former Minister of Petroleum, Diezani Alison-Madueke, to challenge an order obtained by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for final forfeiture of her seized assets, was stalled yesterday at a Federal High Court in Abuja.
The matter, which was before Justice Inyang Ekwo, was fixed for further mention in the day’s cause list.
But the case could not proceed because the court did not sit.
Justice Ekwo was said to be attending a seminar at the National Judicial Institute (NJI) in Abuja.
The matter was subsequently fixed for November 21.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the ex-minister had, through her counsel, Chief Mike Ozekhome (SAN), sued the anti-graft agency as sole respondent.
Alison-Madueke had sought an order extending the time to seek leave to apply to the court for an order to set aside the EFCC’s public notice issued to conduct a public sale on her property.
In the motion dated and filed on January 6, 2023, by her lawyer, the former minister sought five orders from the court.
The former minister, who argued that the various orders were made without jurisdiction, said these “ought to be set aside ex debito justitiae” (from or as a debt of justice).
Alison-Madueke alleged that she was not given a fair hearing in the proceedings leading to the orders.
“The various court orders issued in favour of the respondent and upon which the respondent issued the public notice were issued in breach of the applicant’s right to fair hearing, as guaranteed by Section 36 (1) of the 1999 Constitution, as altered, and other similar constitutional provisions,” she said.
The former minister argued that she was neither served with the charge sheet and proof of evidence in any of the charges nor with any other summons on the criminal charges pending against her before the court.
She also argued that the courts were misled into making several final forfeiture orders against her assets through suppression or non-disclosure of material 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 this honourable 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.
“The orders were made without recourse to the constitutional right to fair hearing and right to property accorded the applicant by the constitution.”
“The applicant was never served with the processes of court in all the proceedings that led to the order of final forfeiture,” she said, among other grounds given.
But in a counter-affidavit deposed to by a detective with the commission, Mr. Rufai Zaki, the EFCC urged the court to dismiss her application.
Zaki, a member of the team that investigated a case of criminal conspiracy, official corruption and money laundering against the ex-minister and some other persons involved in the case, said the investigation clearly showed that she was involved in some acts of criminality.
“We hereby rely on the charge, dated November 14, 2018, filed before this honourable court and also attached as Exhibit C in the applicant’s affidavit,” he said.
The EFCC operative said most of the depositions in Alison-Madueke’s suit were untrue.
He added that contrary to her deposition in the affidavit filed in support of the suit, most of the cases, which led to the final forfeiture of the contested property “were action in rem, same was heard at various times and determined by this honourable court”.
Zaki said the courts ordered the commission to do a newspaper publication inviting parties to show cause why the named property should not be forfeited to the Federal Government before the final orders were made.
The EFCC operative named Nnamdi Awa Kalu as representing the ex-minister in reaction to one of the forfeiture applications.
“We humbly rely on the judgment of Justice I. L. N. Oweibo, dated September 10, 2019, shown in Exhibit C of the applicant’s affidavit,” he said.
Zaki explained that contrary to her argumnet, the final forfeiture of the assets, which were subject of the present application, was ordered by the court in 2017 and that it was not set aside or upturned on appeal.
According to him, the properties have been disposed of through due process of law.
NAN recalls that Justice Ekwo had, on June 21, 2023, fixed October 23, 2023 for hearing of the suit
The judge had fixed the date after a lawyer who appeared for Alison-Madueke, Benson Igbanoi, and EFCC’s counsel, M. D. Baraya, regularised their processes in the suit.
The anti-corruption agency had planned to conduct a public sale of all the assets seized for being proceeds of crime, as ordered by courts, to be permanently forfeited to the Federal Government.
The auctioning, conducted on the seized assets believed to include Alison-Madueke’s property, started on January 9, 2023.
The suspended EFCC Chairman Abdulrasheed Bawa had revealed that $153 million and over 80 properties had been recovered from the ex-minister.
Alison-Madueke was alleged to have escaped to the United Kingdom (UK) and remained there after her exit from public office as the Petroleum Minister, an office she held between 2010 and 2015 under the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan.
The asset-related suit is different from the one she also filed to seek N100 billion as compensation for a series of EFCC’s alleged libelous publications against her.