The Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Abdulrasheed Bawa has disclosed that the former Minister of Petroleum Resources Diezani Alison-Madueke has forfeited jewellery worth N14.4 billion.
He also said that the houses seized from the former Minister are also valued at $80million, about N32.97 billion.
The EFCC chairman stated this on Friday when he appeared before the House of Representatives ad-hoc committee investigating the assessment and status of recovered loot.
He said the “jewellery forfeited from the former minister has been valued by relevant government agencies and the estimated value of the jewelry is 14.4 billion naira.”
The total asset forfeiture is N47.57 billion.
The anti graft chairman said that Diezani’s jewellery are still in the custody of the agency, adding that it had not been auctioned but had been finally forfeited to the Federal Government.
He said that court processes, procedures and administrative exigencies had stalled the auctioning of some of the seized assets.
Bawa however said that the agency would henceforth deal with the seized assets case by case at the courts, to quickly dispose the assets.
“Already the Federal Government has set up a committee under the chairmanship of the Solicitor-General for the Federation and I think they are working tirelessly.
The committee will ensure that assets that are recovered by the EFCC are disposed off.
“We have EFCC representatives on that committee and we believe at the end of the day Nigerians are going to appreciate what that committee will come out with in terms of the mandate given to them,” he said.
The House of Reps committee is assessing the status of all recovered loot moveable and immovable assets from 2002-2020 by agencies of government.
A Federal High Court in Lagos had in September 2019 granted a final forfeiture of the jewellery to the federal government
Justice Nicholas Oweibo ruled that the former minister had failed to show cause why the jewellery should not be forfeited to the Nigerian government.
In his application for the final forfeiture order, Counsel to the commission Rotimi Oyedepo had told the judge that the expensive jewellery comprising wristwatches, necklaces, bracelets, bangles, earrings, a customized gold phone, and more were reasonably suspected to have been acquired with proceeds of unlawful activities of the former minister.
Earlier this year, the EFCC handed a property forfeited by the former minister to the Lagos Government for use as an isolation centre for COVID-19 patients.
The six flats of three bedrooms and a boys’ quarter had been forfeited to the Federal Government, following an order of a Federal High Court in Lagos in 2017.
