Diezani Alison-Madueke, the former minister of petroleum resources for Nigeria, has stated that she has nothing to do with the $52.5 million that was just returned to the nation from the United States of America (USA). On Friday, January 10, the federal government declared that $52.88 million in retrieved Galactica assets connected to the former petroleum minister had been received.CONTINUE FULL READING>>>>>
During a formal signing ceremony of the asset return agreement in Abuja, Lateef Fagbemi, the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, declared the recovery. According to Fagbemi, $50 million of the money that was recovered would be used to construct electrification projects in rural areas through the World Bank. He said that the International Institute of Justice would receive the remaining $2.88 million to improve the legal system and aid anti-corruption efforts.
But in a statement released on Sunday, Diezani, who has been living in the UK since leaving Nigeria, said that the money that was allegedly linked to her as illegal earnings actually belonged to Kola Aluko, Nigeria’s oil magnate. In her last response to the purported recovery via her lawyer, Mike Ozekhome SAN, Diezani insisted that the phrase “Diezani Loot” is baseless because she was not involved in the events leading up to the monies’ confiscation by their legitimate owner.
In support of her position, the former minister said the $52.5 million came from a ship that the US government had seized from Kola Aluko and sold, giving the money back to the Nigerian federal government. The Chambers of Mike Ozekhome SAN published a lengthy press release on Sunday titled “There is no such thing as Diezani Loot,” which highlighted her denial of ownership over the money.
As solicitors to Diezani Alison-Madueke (DAM), the former Minister of Petroleum Resources, HMPR, my chambers makes this public, according to the statement. As her attorneys, we are well-versed in her current situation and all of the information pertaining to her cases, both domestically in Nigeria and outside. As a result, we write from the perspective of someone who is aware of the variety of falsehoods that have been spread about her cases over the past 10 years.
Many of the stories are blatantly untrue, some are utterly speculative, and the most are just bizarre tales concocted by her translators to get a Shylock’s pound of flesh from her for reasons she cannot even understand.
Therefore, the goal of this intervention is to rectify this distorted narrative and fix the records for historical purposes. Many Nigerians frequently express a desire for “technocrats” to participate in governance. They believe that morally upright people ought to enter politics. “We concur with them. Unfortunately, though, these same individuals frequently not only permit but even join the movement to mob-lynch those who have chosen to serve the country.
And we frequently do this insidiously, secretly, and blatantly, even in cases when there isn’t any hard evidence that these public officials have ever misused their positions or embezzled money from the government. Therefore, the extent of persistent demonization of an innocent Nigerian citizen who has not yet been prosecuted and convicted of any known crime by any court of law, whether in Nigeria or outside, is startling and extremely concerning to us. On the receiving end is Diezani Alison-Madueke (DAM), a citizen.
Cruel and cunning The preceding assertions regarding the asset recovery were characterized as false and defamatory in the statement issued by Ozekhome’s office. It stated: “We are concerned about the recent intentional attempt to associate her with what has been characterized as a civil forfeiture of a yacht, Galactica, whose sale reportedly brought $52.8 million to the US government, which has since been returned to Nigeria.”
This exemplifies the naughty and cruel practice of damaging the lady’s reputation by spreading a constant, continuous, and relentless stream of lies and misinformation. The propagandists of this false information refer to it as “name-and-shame.” The architects made sure to affix Diezani’s name to a recovered vessel that has nothing to do with her in order to sell the plot.
They have since mislabeled it “Diezani loot.” Such a thing never occurred. She had no involvement in the yacht’s acquisition, use, or sale. The yacht Galactica was bought by Mr. Kola Aluko, who utilized it until he consented to its forfeiture to the United States of America, according to material that is easily accessible in the public domain and open sources.
“Our client never owned or utilized the yacht Galactica. In actuality, DAM has never laid eyes on the vessel. An accomplished businessman, Kola Aluko was in operation long before DAM was appointed HMPR. The shaky foundation for purposefully associating DAM with the aforementioned boat is the untrue claim that DAM corruptly granted the Atlantic Energy firms of Kola Aluko and Jide Omokore the Strategic Alliance Agreements (SAAs) that were signed with NNPC. Since DAM was not the NNPC’s GMD, he was unable to issue the aforementioned contracts.
As her attorneys, we humbly request that she be given a fair trial and that the processes in this UK court be allowed to unfold naturally in order to protect her in the current subjudice UK actions against her. “Those vendors and vendors who frequently fabricate these blatantly untrue, baseless, disparaging, stupid, and unsupportable stories to disparage and degrade her ought to make better use of their time and stop bothering DAM.” “Avoid interfering with the law’s natural progression. We pray in humility.CONTINUE FULL READING>>>>>
