Former Nigeria minister, Diezani, drags EFCC to court, demands N100bn as payment for damages

A former Minister for Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, on Friday, instituted a N100billion defamation suit against the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.

The erstwhile Minister, who left the country since 2015, in the suit she filed before a High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, alleged that the anti-graft agency authored and sponsored several publications that portrayed her as a treasury looter.

For instance, she alleged that the EFCC, on December 16, 2021, made a publication against her that was captioned; “Diezani: EFCC uncovers additional $72.8 million.”

She told the court that the Commission had in 2017, also caused to be published, an article, titled: “Unbelievable!!! EFCC traces N47.2 Billion, $487.5 Million to ex-Minister Diezani Alison-Madueke.”

The former Minister, in the legal action she filed through her team of lawyers led by Chief Mike Ozekhome, SAN, insisted that the publications were done under the supervision of the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami, SAN, who was cited as the 2nd Defendant in the case.

She told the court that the articles, which were widely published by the EFCC, was “false, malicious, injurious and intended to lower the reputation and integrity of and did indeed lower the reputation and integrity of the Claimant in the estimation of right thinking members of the society within and outside Nigeria”.

More so, the former Petroleum Minister, in the suit marked: CV/6273/2023, maintained that the said defamatory publications brought her into “public ridicule, odium, contempt, derision and obloquy.”

Therefore, she is among other things, seeking; “A declaration that the publication titled, ‘By virtue of an order of the Federal High Court of Nigeria sitting in Abuja, Diezani Alison Madueke, had forfeited to the Federal Government of Nigeria, the sum of $40,000,000.00, (forty million dollars) only, which jewelries were found and recovered by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission in the premises of the Respondent and reasonably suspected to have been acquired with proceeds of the Respondent’s unlawful activities’, made by the honourable court on Monday, 24th day of January, 2022, relying on the false information made available to the court by the 1st Defendant in a court process dated and filed on the 4th day of July, 2019, and widely published in print media, online and hard copies by various media houses are libelous, false, malicious, injurious and intended to lower the reputation and integrity of and did indeed lower the reputation and integrity of the Claimant in the estimation of right thinking members of the society within and outside Nigeria and also brought the Claimant into public ridicule, odium, contempt, derision and obloquy.

“A declaration that the publication titled ‘By virtue of an order of the Federal High Court of Nigeria, sitting in Abuja, the Prosecution Counsel to liaise with the office of the Attorney General of the Federation towards the extradition of the Defendant’, made by the honourable court on the 28th day of October, 2020, relying on the false information made available to the court by the 1st Defendant in a court process dated and filed on the 13th day of November, 2018, and widely published in the print media, online and hard copies by various media houses are libelous, false, malicious, injurious; were intended to lower the reputation and integrity of, and did indeed lower the reputation and integrity of the Claimant in the estimation of right thinking members of the society within and outside Nigeria and also brought the Claimant into public ridicule, odium, contempt, derision and obloquy.

“A declaration that the claims and publication made by the 1st Defendant on the 16th of December, 2021, to the effect that it had uncovered an additional $72.8 Million, purportedly belonging to the Claimant; and widely published by the 1st Defendant in the print media, online and hard copies by various media houses are libelous, false, malicious, injurious; were intended to lower the reputation and integrity of, and did indeed lower the reputation and integrity of the Claimant in the estimation of right thinking members of the society within and outside Nigeria and also brought the Claimant into public ridicule, odium, contempt, derision and obloquy.

“A declaration that the false and defamatory statement made by the 1st Defendant of and concerning the Claimant on or about 17th of February, 2022, (Channels Television https//:www.channelstv.com→video), to the effect that the Claimant should be extradited for stealing a sum of $2.5 Billion belonging to the Nigerian government, which she must account for, which was widely published by the 1st Defendant in the print media, online and hard copies by various media houses are libelous, false, malicious, injurious; were intended to lower the reputation and integrity of, and did indeed lower the reputation and integrity of the Claimant in the estimation of right thinking members of the society within and outside Nigeria and also brought the Claimant into public ridicule, odium, contempt, derision and obloquy.”

Aside from seeking an order directing both the EFCC and the AGF to retract the said libelous publications against her, the Claimant further demanded for an unreserved apology to be published in at least three national dailies within seven days from the date of judgment.

She also prayed the court for; “An order directing 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.”

Meanwhile, no date has been fixed for the matter to be heard