Court Threatens to Strike out Fraud Charges Against Diezani Alison-Madueke

A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja on Tuesday threatened to strike out a charge of money laundering brought before it by the Federal Government against former Minister of Petroleum, Diezani Alison-Madueke.

The presiding judge of the court, Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu handed down the threat when, at the mention of the case initiated by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, the lawyer for the anti-graft agency, Farouk Abdallah said the Federal Government was having challenges effecting the ex-ministers extraction.

According to Abdallah, it was necessary to keep the case alive for the extradition process, already commenced, to be brought to fruition.

Alison-Madueke who is facing charges of money laundering left the country for the UK shortly before the inception of the Buhari administration.

In 2017, a federal high court in Lagos ordered the forfeiture of N7.6 billion allegedly linked to her to the federal government.

In November 2018, the EFCC started a process to extradite the former minister, and in the next month, the international police issued a warrant for her arrest following a request by the government.

Alison-Madueke is also being investigated in the UK for alleged financial impropriety