The former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke, says she was diagnosed with the most aggressive form of breast cancer – Triple Negative Cancer.

Alison-Madueke said she was hurriedly flown into England on May 22, 2015, in order to undertake a critical course of treatment, alleging that the operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) raided her residence and carted some documents away.

The former minister said this while praying to a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja to set aside the bench warrant issued against her on July 24, 2020.

Alison-Madueke, in a motion on notice brought by her counsel, Mike Ozekhome, SAN, before Justice Mobolaji Olajuwon, sought a court order extending the time within which she could seek leave to apply for the order discharging the bench warrant.

Alison-Madueke served as minister between 2010 and 2015 in former President Goodluck Jonathan’s government.

The ex-minister, who sought an order granting leave to apply for the order, also urged the court to strike out her name as “a defendant in charge number; FHC/ABJ/CR/208/2018 between the Federal Republic of Nigeria V. Diezani Alison Madueke, pending before this honourable court.”

The motion, which has FRN as complainant/respondent, had Alison-Madueke as the sole defendant/applicant.

It was brought pursuant to Sections 36 (1) and (8), 35 of the 1999 Constitution (as altered); Section 1, 113, 114, 382 (4 & 5) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015; and under the inherent powers of the court as preserved by Section 6(6A) of the 1999 Constitution.

The Federal Government, through the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), had, in an ex-parte motion, sought a bench warrant against Alison-Madueke.

Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu, who granted the order on July 24, 2020, after the anti-corruption lawyer moved the motion, directed that Alison-Madueke should be arrested by local or international police anywhere she was sighted within or outside the country.

The development followed the inability of the EFCC to extradite her back to the country from the United Kingdom where she resides to stand the money laundering trial preferred against her.

The case was, however, reassigned to Justice Olajuwon following the transfer of Ojukwu to the Calabar division of the court in 2021.

The ex-minister, in a five-ground attached with the motion, said the bench warrant was issued without jurisdiction, and ought to be set aside ex debito justitiae.

She argued that it was issued in breach of her right to fair hearing as guaranteed by Section 36 (1) of the 1999 Constitution (as altered).

She further stated that she had neither been served with the charge sheet and proof of evidence in charge number: FHC/ABJ/CR/208/2018, nor was there any other summons howsoever and whatsoever in respect of the criminal charge pending against her before the court.

Alison-Madueke said the court was misled into issuing the bench warrant against her based on suppression or non-disclosure of material facts.

“The ex-parte application for an order of bench warrant against the defendant/applicant was obtained upon gross misstatements, misrepresentations, non-disclosure, concealment, and suppression of material facts and this honourable court has the power to set aside same ex debito justitiae, as a void order is as good as if it was never made at all,” she stated.

In the affidavit she personally deposed to, Alison-Madueke, averred that she had resided in the UK since May 22, 2015, when she voluntarily travelled for medical treatment.

Alison-Madueke, however, said towards the end of the tenure of the administration of Jonathan, she was diagnosed with the most aggressive form of breast cancer.

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“I hurriedly flew into England on 22nd May 2015, in order to undertake a critical course of treatment, which consisted of two operations, eight months of intensive chemotherapy, and five weeks of radiotherapy and I have remained in England ever since then, where I have undergone intensive medical care and treatment.

“In the course of receiving my treatment and only one week after completing, the eight-month course of treatment in my extremely aggressive chemotherapy (during which time I was erroneously put into a near-fatal coma.

”On October 2, 2015, I was invited by the UK National Crime Agency (NCA), to the Charing Cross Police Station, London, where I was questioned for several hours and subsequently released on police bail.

“That prior to that time, the officers of the NCA had invaded my personal residence and conducted a search, carting away with them several documents and other valuable items.

“That since then, I have consistently and severally been invited for interviews by the NCA, many of which have been serially adjourned or postponed to future dates due to no fault of mine,” she said.

The former minister further alleged that almost contemporaneously, with the raid on her residence by officers of the NCA, the officials of the EFCC also broke into and raided her private residence in Abuja and carted away several documents and many items of value.

“All this was done in my absence and without any prior invitation or notice to that effect,” she alleged.

She said she had either read in the media or been informed by close associates and relatives, about several forfeiture orders said to have been made in respect of certain monies and property in some charges or other civil proceedings all of which were usually ascribed and allegedly said to belong to her in the media.

“That I have till date never been served with any court processes in respect of all the aforementioned charges or forfeiture proceedings in Nigeria, to enable me respond, or defend myself,” the former minister added.

Alison-Madueke alleged that the EFCC, which had been filing the said charges or forfeiture proceedings, knew very well she resides in the UK; and had indeed on an occasion, in the past, actually served a particular document on her through the NCA.

She said the document served on the NCA by the EFCC has to do with properties in the UK, which they purported to belong to me.

She alleged that the EFCC usually collaborates with the NCA with regard to matters involving her, but had bluntly refused to do so in this particular case and in all the Nigerian forfeiture cases that relate to her.

She alleged that the anti-graft agency’s application was made against her in extreme bad faith in order to inconvenience and humiliate her.

She said since residing in the UK, she had been living openly and had never made any attempt to conceal her identity, location, and/or home address, from any persons, or authorities, whether abroad or in Nigeria.

“The NCA is fully aware of my location in the UK,” she added.

The ex-minister alleged that she was subjected to unfair media trial and internet space–lynching without being afforded any opportunity to defend herself against the diet of lies continually fed to the public about her by the EFCC.

She, therefore, prayed the court to vacate the order of bench warrant against her and struck out her name from the charge in the interest of justice.

Meanwhile, the hearing date was yet to be fixed as of the time of filing the report.

Justice Olajuwon had also, on January 24, 2022, issued an arrest warrant against Alison-Madueke.

The order followed a complaint by the EFCC’s lawyer, Faruk Abdullah, that all efforts by the agency to get the ex-minister extradited when the matter was before Justice Ojukwu were unsuccessful.

He said the arrest warrant was needed to further give the International Police (INTERPOL) the impetus to bring the defendant to Nigeria to answer to charges against her.

Olajuwon then granted the application and adjourned the matter sine die pending when the ex-minister is arrested and produced in court.

The Star