By Joseph Onyekwere

The Court of Appeal, Lagos Division, yesterday dismissed an appeal by the embattled former Minister of Petroleum, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, challenging the forfeiture of her $40 million worth of jewellery to the Federal Government.

The appellate court held that there was no substance in Alison-Madueke’s bid to overturn the lower court’s order. It affirmed the 2019 judgment of Justice Nicholas Oweibo of the Federal High Court, which forfeited the jewellery, following an application by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

The appellate court gave its judgment in an appeal filed by Alison-Madueke marked as Appeal No CA/L/1263/19 between Diezani Alison Madueke and the EFCC.

On July 5, 2019, the EFCC had secured an order of the High Court temporarily forfeiting the expensive items to the Federal Government. According to the schedule attached to the application, the jewellery, categorised into 33 sets, include “419 expensive bangles; 315 expensive rings; 304 expensive earrings; 267 expensive necklaces; 189 expensive wristwatches; 174 expensive necklaces and earrings; 78 expensive bracelets; 77 expensive brooches and 74 expensive pendants.”

The items were seized from the former minister’s premises at No. 10 Fredrick Chiluba Close, Asokoro, Abuja. Justice Oweibo had on July 19, 2019, granted the EFCC’s motion for final forfeiture of the jewellery.

The judge held that the former Minister failed to show cause why the jewellery should not be forfeited to the Federal Government. In his application for the final forfeiture order, EFCC counsel, Mr. Rotimi Oyedepo, had told the judge that the items were reasonably suspected to have been acquired with the proceeds of unlawful activities of the former minister.

An investigator with the Commission, Rufai Zaki, in an affidavit before the court, insisted that the jewellery were beyond the former minister’s “known and provable lawful income.”

The investigator further said the findings by the EFCC showed that she started acquiring the jewellery in 2012, two years after she was appointed minister.

The investigator also said that the EFCC was in possession of the details of the bank account through which Mrs. Alison-Madueke received her salary as a minister.

“The respondent did not utilise her salary or any part of her legitimate income to acquire the assets sought to be forfeited to the Federal Government of Nigeria,” Zaki said.

He stated that a “damning intelligence report” received by the Commission led to the search of former minister’s house.

The former minister, on her part, had challenged the seizure of the jewellery from her premises by the EFCC.In an affidavit filed on her behalf by her counsel, Prof. Awa Kalu (SAN), Diezani, who is currently in the United Kingdom, alleged that the EFCC violated her fundamental “right to own property and to appropriate them at her discretion,” under sections 43 and 44 of the constitution.

She also accused the anti-graft agency of entering her apartment illegally and taking the items without any court order.