Former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke (DAM), has denied ownership of the $52.8 million recently repatriated to Nigeria from the United States of America (USA).

The former minister, who has been residing in the United Kingdom (UK) since leaving Nigeria, claimed that the money linked to her in the media as “loot” actually belongs to Nigerian oil magnate Kola Aluko.

Breaking her silence through her counsel, Prof. Mike Ozekhome, SAN, Mrs. Alison-Madueke insisted that there was no such thing as “Diezani loot” and maintained that she had no involvement in the issues surrounding the forfeiture of the funds by its rightful owner.

According to her statement, the $52.8 million resulted from the sale of a vessel seized by the U.S. government from Kola Aluko, with the proceeds subsequently returned to the Nigerian government.

Her denial was detailed in a press statement issued on Sunday by the Chambers of Mike Ozekhome, SAN, titled, “There is No Such Thing as Diezani Loot.”

“My chambers makes this intervention in the public domain as Solicitors to Diezani Alison-Madueke (DAM) ,the former Minister of Petroleum Resources.

“As her Solicitors, we are fully versed in and conversant with her present ordeal and the entire facts surrounding her matters both here in Nigeria and abroad.

“So, we write from the vantage position of one that is aware of the cocktail of lies that have been spurned around her cases in the last ten years.

“Many of the narratives are outrightly false; some others sheer outlandish speculations; and most, simply bizzare stories cooked up by her traducers to extract a shylock’s pound of flesh from her for reasons she does not know and cannot even fathom.

“This intervention therefore seeks to correct this skewed narrative and set the records straight for purposes of history.

“Many Nigerians often talk about wanting ‘technocrats’ to be involved in governance. They desire that people with character and integrity should join politics.

“We agree with them. However and regrettably too, now and again and many a time, the same people not only allow, but actually join the bandwagon to mob-lynch those who chose to serve the nation.

“And we often do this insidiously, covertly and overtly, even when there is no concrete or even any iota of proof that such public officers ever abused their offices or stole from public coffers.

“It is therefore surprising and of great concern to us, to see the level of sustained vilification of an innocent Nigerian citizen who has not yet been tried and found guilty of any offence known to law by any court of law whether in Nigeria or abroad. The person at the receiving end is Citizen Diezani Alison-Madueke.

“We note with concern the recent deliberate attempt to link her with what has been described as a civil forfeiture of a yacht Galactica, the sale of which was said to have yielded $52.8million to the US government; which sum has since been repatriated to Nigeria.

“This is a clear example of the mischievous and cruel sport of tarnishing the image of the lady through a bouquet of consistent, persistent and unrelenting cocktail of falsehoods and misinformation.

“The purveyors of this line of misinformation term it “name-and-shame”. To sell the storyline, the architects ensured they attached Diezani’s name to a recovered yacht which is not in any way linked to her.

“They now falsely termed it “Diezani loot”. Nothing of the sort ever happened. She was never involved in the purchase, use and sale of the said yacht.

“The yacht Galactica, from information readily available in the public domain and in open sources, was purchased by Mr Kola Aluko who had used the vessel until he agreed to its forfeiture to the United States of America.

“The yacht Galactica was neither owned nor ever used by our client. Dieziani Allison-Madueke has in fact never set her eyes on the yacht.

“Kola Aluko is an experienced businessman who had been in business well before DAM came into office as Minister.

“The only tenuous basis for deliberately linking DAM to the said yacht is the false narrative that the Strategic Alliance Agreements (SAAs) which were entered into between Kola Aluko and Jide Omokore’s Atlantic Energy companies and NNPC, were allegedly corruptly awarded to the said companies by DAM. DAM was not the GMD of the NNPC as so did not and could not have awarded the said contracts.

“We plead, as her lawyers, with all and sundry that she be accorded fair hearing and that the process of these UK court proceedings be allowed to take their natural course to avoid prejudice to her in the ongoing subjudice UK proceedings against her.

The senior lawyer said, “those purveyors and peddlers who habitually spin the outrightly false, unfounded, defamatory, unintelligent and indefensible narratives to denigrate and humiliate her should please find better use of their time and leave DAM alone.

“Let the law take its natural course without interference. We humbly pray”, the statement said.

The Nigerian government on Friday received from the United States $52.88m recovered Galactica assets, linked to a former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke.

The Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi, disclosed this at the formal signing ceremony of the asset agreement between Nigeria and the United States of America in Abuja on Friday.

Fagbemi, while delivering his remarks, explained that $50 million of the recovered assets will be deployed through the World Bank for the rural electrification project, while the remaining $2 million will be deployed to the International Institute of Justice to expand the justice system and also counter corruption.

The AGF reiterated further that the asset return marks a milestone in the ongoing collaboration between Nigeria and the United States in combating corruption and upholding the rule of law.

According to him, the event is also a significant effort by the President Bola Tinubu administration to address the issue of corruption.

On his part, the United States Ambassador to Nigeria, Richard Mills, called for the monitoring and utilization of the recovered assets for the benefit of Nigerians.

Diezani Allison-Madueke, a former Petroleum Resources Minister has sued the Attorney General of the Federation and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for alleged libel. 

According to a writ of summons filed on her behalf at the Federal High Court, Abuja, by her team of lawyers led by Mike Ozekhome (SAN), the former is demanding N100bn to be paid to her in damages.

A copy of it seen by Channels Television on Friday night directed the “Defendants jointly and severally to pay to the Claimant the sum of N100,000,000,000.00 (100 billion naira) only as damages for the false, injurious, malicious and libelous publications against the Claimant in the 1st Defendant’s publishing platform, and at the instance of both the 1st and the 2nd Defendants”.

In the writ of summons dated May 26, 2023, the former minister is also demanding that the EFCC and AGF apologise to her in three national dailies over what she described as “the false, injurious, malicious and libelous publications” against her since she left Nigeria in 2015.

Both EFCC and the AGF were given 14 days from the service of the summons to enter their defence.