Former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke is seeking a court order to stop the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) from selling off all the properties seized from her.
In legal documents filed through her lawyers, led by Chief Mike Ozekhome, the former Minister asked the Federal High Court in Abuja for an order directing the anti-graft agency to retrieve from persons (natural or corporate), to whom it had sold off any of her properties.
According to her, the EFCC had in pursuant to a notice it issued in 2023, and acting in breach of her fundamental right to fair hearing, commenced a public sale by auction, assets linked to her.
Diezani added that the EFCC based its decision to sell off her properties on final forfeiture orders it obtained from various courts in the country.
“In many cases, the final forfeiture orders were made against properties which affected the Applicant’s interest, the courts were misled into making the final order of forfeiture against the Applicant, based on suppression or non-disclosure of material facts.
The several applications upon which the courts made the final order of forfeiture against the Applicant were obtained upon gross misstatements, misrepresentations, non-disclosure, concealment and suppression of material facts and thus court has the power to set aside same ex-debito justitiae, as a void order is as good as if it was never made at all,” Diezani said