Justice Muslim Hassan of the Federal High Court in Lagos has ordered the temporary forfeiture of the sum of $153,310,000, which a former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueze, allegedly siphoned from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation and stashed in three banks in the country.
Diezani Alison-Madueze
Out of the allegedly stolen $153.3m, a sum of N23,446, 300,000 was kept in Sterling Bank Plc, N9,080,000,000 in First Bank Plc and $5m in Access Bank Plc.
After ordering the temporary forfeiture of the monies to the Federal Government on Friday, Justice Hassan gave Sterling Bank and any other interested party 14 days to appear before him to prove the legitimacy of the monies, failing which the funds would be permanently forfeited to the Federal Government.
The judge made the order in favour of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission which appeared before him on Friday with an ex parte application seeking the temporary forfeiture of the funds.
