Hours after a District Judge in London admitted her to a 70,000 pounds bail for allegedly receiving bribes on some contracts she awarded during her tenure as Nigeria’s Petroleum Resources Minister, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has begun the process of getting Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke extradited from the United Kingdom.
According to the acting spokesman of the EFCC, Mr. Dele Oyewale, the anti-graft agency had obtained an arrest warrant even as it begins the extradition process of the fugitive former Petroleum Minister to Nigeria.
When she returns, she would face a 13-count charge bordering on money laundering slammed against her by the commission.
The money laundering charges against Diezani Alison-Madueke, the EFCC further revealed, cover jurisdictions in Dubai-the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, the United States of America, and Nigeria.
On Monday, Alison-Madueke had appeared before the Westminster Magistrates Court in London over an alleged £100,000 bribe she took in return for awarding multi-million-pound oil and gas contracts.
But the district judge, Mr. Michael Snow, granted Alison-Madueke a £70,000 bail and imposed other terms on the former minister including an 11 pm to 6 am curfew, an electronic tag to be worn by her at all times. But she had to pay a £70,000 surety before being allowed to leave the court building.
The UK’s National Crime Agency had, way back in August, announced that it had evidence to prove that Mrs. Alison-Madueke had accepted bribes in return for awarding multi-million-pound oil and gas contracts.
The Punch newspaper had, in a report, quoted an anonymous Federal Government source which it said revealed that the ongoing trial of Alison-Madueke at the Westminster Magistrates Court in London was a direct result of an informal inter-agency collaboration between the EFCC and the UK’s NCA.
