Diezani Disowns $52.8m Repatriated Loot, Reveals Owner – Lawyer
LAGOS JANUARY 20TH (NEWSRANGERS)-A former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke, has denied ownership of the $52.8m loot recently repatriated from the US.
Diezani, through her lawyer, Mike Ozekhome (SAN), in a statement on Sunday in Abuja, debunked claims of owning the money.
The Federal Government had recently announced that the US government $52.88m said to be linked to Diezani.
The funds were said to be from the forfeiture of the Galactica assets, linked to the former petroleum minister and her associates.
The U.S. Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Richard M. Mills Jr., who led a delegation that signed the Asset Return Agreement at the Federal Ministry of Justice Headquarters in Abuja, stated it had been agreed that the returned funds would be utilised for developmental projects.
Speaking on her behalf, Ozekhome stated that claims linking the money, now popularly referred to in the media as “Diezani’s loot,” to the former minister are false and purely speculative.
He clarified that the $52.8m specifically belonged to Nigerian oil magnate, Kola Aluko.
Ozekhome further explained that the repatriated funds were proceeds from a vessel seized by the American government from Kola Aluko.
The vessel was later sold, and the proceeds, returned to the Federal Government of Nigeria.
In the statement, Ozekhome insisted that the infamous phrase “Diezani Loot” was baseless, insisting that Diezani had no involvement whatsoever in the issues surrounding the forfeiture of the funds by its rightful owner.
He said, “My chambers makes this intervention in the public domain as solicitors to Diezani Alison-Madueke, the former Minister of Petroleum Resources.
“As her solicitors, we are fully versed in and conversant with her present ordeal and the entire facts surrounding her matters both here in Nigeria and abroad. So, we write from the vantage position of one that is aware of the cocktail of lies that have been spurned around her cases in the last 10 years.
“Many of the narratives are outright false; some others sheer outlandish speculations; and most, simply bizzare stories cooked up by her traducers to extract a Shylock’s pound of flesh from her for reasons she does not know and cannot even fathom.
“This intervention, therefore, seeks to correct this skewed narrative and set the records straight for purposes of history.”
Ozekhome, while alleged that Diezani was being persecuted, said Nigerians often talked about wanting ‘technocrats’ to be involved in governance, “however and regrettably too, now and again and many a time, the same people not only allow, but actually join the bandwagon to mob-lynch those who chose to serve the nation.”
He said, “It is therefore surprising and of great concern to us, to see the level of sustained vilification of an innocent Nigerian citizen who has not yet been tried and found guilty of any offence known to law by any court of law whether in Nigeria or abroad. The person at the receiving end is Citizen Diezani Alison-Madueke.
“We note with concern the recent deliberate attempt to link her with what has been described as a civil forfeiture of a yacht Galactica, the sale of which was said to have yielded $52.8m to the US government, which sum has since been repatriated to Nigeria.
“This is a clear example of the mischievous and cruel sport of tarnishing the image of the lady through a bouquet of consistent, persistent and unrelenting cocktail of falsehoods and misinformation.”
Ozekhome lambasted the purveyors of what he termed ‘name-and-shame’ narrative against Diezani.
“They now falsely termed it ‘Diezani loot’. Nothing of the sort ever happened. She was never involved in the purchase, use and sale of the said yacht.
“The yacht Galactica, from information readily available in the public domain and in open sources, was purchased by Mr Kola Aluko who had used the vessel until he agreed to its forfeiture to the United States of America.
“The yacht Galactica was neither owned nor ever used by our client. DAM has, in fact, never set her eyes on the yacht. Kola Aluko is an experienced businessman who had been in business well before DAM came into office as HMPR.”
Punch
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Posted by News Rangers
on Jan 20 2025. Filed under National.
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