Former Petroleum Minister, Diezani, asks Court to recover 2,149 pieces of jewelry seized by EFCC

Nigeria’s former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, has urged the court to order the return of her 2,149 pieces of jewelry and a customised gold iPhone which were seized by anti-graft agency, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

Diezani said this in an application filed on her behalf by Prof. Awa Kalu (SAN), before the Federal High Court in Lagos.

She accused the EFCC of entering her apartment illegally and taking the items without any court order.

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She further argued that the anti-graft agency violated her fundamental “right to own property and to appropriate them at her discretion.”

Earlier in July, the EFCC had secured an order of the court temporarily forfeiting the jewelry and the gold iPhone to the Federal Government.

But in her application, Diezani contended that the court lacked jurisdiction to have granted the interim forfeiture order in the first place, as she had not been charged with any crime or served with any summons by the EFCC.

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