SAN FRANCISCO, April 05, (THEWILL) – Following her arraignment at the Westminster Magistrate’s Court in London last October, Nigeria’s immediate past Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs Diezani Alison-Madueke will this Tuesday return to the court to answer charges bordering on money laundering and bribery.
Mrs Alison-Madueke was arrested along with four others by the United Kingdom’s National Crime Agency, NCA, but was granted bail and ordered to return on April 5, 2016 for a decision to be taken on the £27,000 seized cash and other allegations leveled against her.
In October 2015, the court ruled that the money can be held for six months before she is arraigned after investigations, and granted the order that she should remain in London while investigations last.
The NCA, which leads the UK law enforcement’s fight to reduce serious and organised crime, is collaborating with Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, in the probe of the former minister.
While Mrs Alison-Madueke was battling arrest oversees, her Abuja home was raided by EFCC operatives with her partners stalked in Switzerland by the Interpol. The NCA found some of the ex-minister’s brothers and other business partners complicit in the money laundering allegation.
She was reportedly arrested with her brothers: Messrs Abiye Agama and Somye Agama, said to operate some UK-based businesses that were hurriedly closed down after the searchlight of the NCA and the EFCC heightened.
The two brothers are directors of Hadley Petroleum Solutions Limited – a company which the authorities believe to have been used for money laundering. The other directors are: Ugonna Madueke and Abu Fari.
