Nigeria seizes ex-oil minister’s luxury apartments
A Nigerian court has confiscated the $37-million (R486-million) luxury apartment complex of a former oil minister accused of fraud and money laundering, as well as rental proceeds from the properties.
Lagos high court judge Chuka Obiozor on Monday also ordered ex-minister Diezani Alison-Madueke to handover more than $2.7-million that she made leasing the apartments.
Since leaving office in 2015, Alison-Madueke had been implicated in bribery, fraud, misuse of public funds, and money laundering cases in Nigeria, Britain, Italy and the United States.
The first female president of the global oil cartel OPEC – who was one of Africa’s most prominent female politicians – had always denied the allegations, which involve billions of dollars syphoned from oil deals and state accounts.
The ruling followed an application by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission that followed an uncontested temporary forfeiture order issued last month.
The anti-graft agency had accused Alison-Madueke of acquiring the apartment complex on Lagos’ ultra-chic Banana Island with stolen government cash.