In a new twist, former Petroleum Resources Minister, Diezani Allison-Madueke, has sued the Attorney General of the Federation and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for alleged libel.
Allison-Madueke is demanding N100bn to be paid to her in damages, 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).
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.
Recall Justice Akintayo Aluko of the Federal High Court in Ikoyi, Lagos, last year, had ordered the final forfeiture of land belonging to the ex-Minister. She was minister of transportation (and later mines and steel development) from 2007 to 2009 under President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua before serving as petroleum minister under President Goodluck Jonathan from 2010 to 2015.
Justice Babs Kuewuni had in 2018 granted an interim forfeiture of the land.
He gave the ruling following an ex-parte application filed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
