The Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission has urged the Federal High Court in Lagos not to order the
return of a former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani
Alison-Madueke, from the United Kingdom to Nigeria.....
The anti-graft agency described
Diezani’s prayer to be brought back to Nigeria as a ploy to escape
justice in the UK, where, according to the EFCC, she is being
investigated for several financial crimes by the Metropolitan Police.
According to the commission,
investigation by the Metropolitan Police in Diezani’s case had reached
an advanced stage and her prosecution in the UK was imminent.
It, therefore, said it would not be in the interest of justice to grant Diezani’s application seeking to return to Nigeria.
The EFCC said this in a
counter-affidavit it filed in opposition to Diezani’s application before
Justice Rilwan Aikawa, wherein she is seeking an order compelling the
Attorney General of the Federation to facilitate her return to Nigeria.
In the said application, which she filed
through her lawyer, Mr. Onyechi Ikpeazu, Diezani said she wished to
appear before the Federal High Court in Lagos to defend a criminal
charge bordering on alleged laundering of N450m, where her name was
mentioned.
The main defendants in the charge are a
Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Mr. Dele Belgore; and a former Minister of
National Planning, Prof. Abubakar Suleiman.
But opposing the application, the EFCC,
in a counter-affidavit deposed to by one of its operatives, Usman
Zakari, explained that when it began investigation into the case
involving Belgore and Suleiman sometime in 2015, Diezani spurned its
invitations to explain her role and rather absconded the UK.
It said subsequent efforts by its
operatives to interview her in London were blocked by her lawyer in the
UK, John Binns of BCL Solicitors, who contended that Nigerian
investigators could not interview her as she was outside Nigeria’s
jurisdiction.
The EFCC said Diezani’s bid to now
return to Nigeria was nothing but a ploy to escape justice having
realised that her trial might soon begin in the UK.
Zakari said, “That the applicant, seeing
that the investigation by the Metropolitan Police had reached advanced
stage and that trial in the instant charge before this honourable court
is proceeding smoothly, had designed the instant application to distract
and scuttle both her investigation and imminent prosecution in the
United Kingdom the trial before this honourable court.
“That the applicant, who knows full well
that she is on bail in the United Kingdom where she is being
investigated for several financial crimes, and that she would not be
able to leave that country in view of the ongoing investigation and
imminent trial, is seeking the order of this honourable court for the
charge before this honourable court to be amended to include her name on
the face of the charge in order for her to escape from investigation
and prosecution in the United Kingdom under the guise that she is coming
to face her trial before this honourable court and also to scuttle the
trial before this honourable court.”
Arguing the counter-affidavit on Monday,
the EFCC lawyer, Rotimi Oyedepo, described Diezani’s application as a
violent abuse of court processes and urged Justice Aikawa to reject
same.
Belgore’s lawyer, Mr. Ebun Shofunde
(SAN), also opposed Diezani’s application, contending that if the charge
was amended to include Diezani’s name, the case would have to start
afresh, a situation he described as unjust.
But Diezani’s lawyer, Ikpeazu,
maintained that justice of the case demanded that her client should
either be given the opportunity to defend herself or the charge sheet
should be amended with her name being expunged.
Justice Aikawa adjourned till Wednesday for ruling.
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