Diezani Alison-Madueke, a former Minister of Petroleum Resources in Nigeria, has denied any involvement with the $52.8 million recently recovered and repatriated to Nigeria from the United States of America.
On Friday, January 10, 2025, the Nigerian government announced the return of $52.88 million in Galactica assets connected to the former minister.
However, in a statement issued on Sunday through her lawyer, Mike Ozekhome (SAN), Diezani, insisted that the funds were not hers but belonged to Nigerian oil magnate, Kola Aluko.
She lamented her continued linkage to corruption and looting of the nation’s treasure by alleged “traducers” seeking “to extract a Shylock’s pound of flesh from her for reasons she does not know and cannot even fathom”.
Diezani also rejected the term “Diezani Loot,” calling it baseless, and clarifying that the money originated from a vessel seized by U.S. authorities from Aluko, which was sold, with the proceeds sent to the Nigerian government.
Ozekhome in the statement titled “There is no such thing as Diezani Loot”, said, “My chambers makes this intervention in the public domain as Solicitors to Diezani Alison-Madueke (DAM), the former Minister of Petroleum Resources, HMPR.
“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 ten years.
“Many of the narratives are outrightly false; some others sheer outlandish speculations; and most, simply bizarre 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. Many Nigerians often talk about wanting ‘technocrats’ to be involved in governance. They desire that people with character and integrity should join politics.
“We agree with them. 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.
“And we often do this insidiously, covertly and overtly, even when there is no concrete or even any iota of proof that such public officers ever abused their offices or stole from public coffers.
“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 (DAM).”
READ ALSO: TikTok Restores Service In US, Thanks Trump For Resolving Ban
Ozekhome said linking his client to the recovered funds to his client “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”.
He said, “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. Diezani Alison-Madueke 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.
“The only tenuous basis for deliberately linking Alison-Madueke to the said yacht is the false narrative that the Strategic Alliance Agreements (SAAs) which were entered into between Kola Aluko & Jide Omokore’s Atlantic Energy companies and NNPC, were allegedly corruptly awarded to the said companies by Diezani Alison-Madueke. DAM was not the GMD of the NNPC as so did not and could not have awarded the said contracts.
“We plead, as her lawyers, with all and sundry that she be accorded fair hearing and that the process of these UK court proceedings be allowed to take their natural course to avoid prejudice to her in the ongoing subjudice UK proceedings against her.”
Besides, Ozekhome pointed out that the issue surrounding the forfeited vessel has long been debunked and laid to rest in Charge No. FHC/ABJ/CR/121/2016: Federal Republic of Nigeria vs Olajide Omokore & Others.
He recalled that the then trial judge, Justice Nnamdi Dimgba (now of the Court of Appeal), had held that the Strategic Alliance Agreements (SAAs) between NNPC and the Atlantic Companies were validly entered into between the said companies and the NNPC.
According to the senior lawyer, “Furthermore, the said companies and their chairman were discharged and acquitted of any offence howsoever in relation to allegedly obtaining the contract or monies realized from it through false representations.
“They were also exonerated and freed of the offence of money laundering in relation to the said contracts with which they were also charged. The judgement in the case clearly established that the said contracts were properly awarded by NNPC and that the said award followed due process.”
While claiming that many of the narratives concerning Diezani “are outrightly false and some others sheer outlandish speculations, Ozekhome argued that it is necessary to correct this skewed narrative and set the records straight for purposes of history.
