EFCC Obtains Arrest Warrant on Diezani Begins Extradition Plan

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has said it obtained an arrest warrant against former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke.

The commission, however, did not give details of the court from which it got the warrant.

Acting spokesman, Dele Oyewale, in a statement in Abuja, yesterday, said the anti-graft agency had initiated extradition proceedings, adding that Diezani would soon have her day in Nigerian courts.

This came as a court in the United Kingdom (UK) granted Diezani bail in the sum of £70,000.

Diezani, who currently lives in St John’s Wood, London, appeared at Westminster Magistrates Court, yesterday, after being charged with bribery offences amounting to £100,000, following a National Crime Agency (NCA) investigation.

District Judge, Michael Snow, granted her bail but imposed other conditions on her after considering her ‘a flight risk’.

The NCA suspects Alison-Madueke, 63, accepted bribes during her time as minister for petroleum resources in exchange for awarding multimillion-pound oil and gas contracts.

Assets worth millions of pounds relating to the alleged offences have already been frozen as part of the ongoing investigation.

In March of this year, the NCA also provided evidence to the U.S. Department of Justice that enabled them to recover assets totaling $53.1 million linked to Alison-Madueke’s alleged corruption.

She is alleged to have benefited from, at least, £100,000 in cash, chauffeur-driven cars, flights on private jets, luxury holidays for her family, and the use of multiple London properties.

Alison-Madueke was arrested in London in 2015, shortly after stepping down as minister, and was charged in August with six bribery offences.

She has spent the past eight years on police bail, living in St John’s Wood, an expensive area of London.

The charges against her, read out in court, all related to events alleged to have taken place in London.