The Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Government has seen a request for the extradition of a former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke, over corruption allegations and trial, rejected by the British government.
JomogNews reports that this was made known by an Assistant Inspector-General of Police and Head of the National Central Bureau, INTERPOL Nigeria, Garba Baba Umar, on Thursday.
He stated this while appearing before the House of Representatives Ad Hoc Committee to Investigate Alleged Loss of Over $2.4bn in Revenue from Illegal Sale of 48 Million Barrels of Crude in 2015 Including Crude Oil Exports from 2014 till date.
While being questioned by members of the committee, the AIG noted that the government followed due process in seeking mutual legal assistance from the United Kingdom but the demand was ignored as the ex-minister also went to court in the UK to stop her extradition.
The country’s Interpol head disclosed why the federal government was successful in extraditing a former Chairman of the defunct Pension Reform Task Team, Abdulrasheed Maina; and a former Attorney-General of the Federation, Bello Adoke (SAN).
He said: “In respect of assistance – seeking for assistance, if you remember, we repatriated many Nigerians who were alleged to have swindled the Nigerian Government. I went personally and brought Maina from (Republic of) Niger.
“I brought the former Attorney-General of the Federation from Dubai and many other Nigerians who absconded. We brought them back to face justice and those who are in Nigeria, hiding, we took them back to their various countries to face justice.”
On why the Nigerian authorities had been unable to bring Alison-Madueke back to the country to face trial, Umar said, “The issue of Diezani, a warrant of arrest was issued. I am sorry to say the government of the UK turned down our request. We followed the MLA – you can check, that is Mutual Legal Assistance – to bring her back home. She went to court because, according to them, they have a system where they check our…let me not go there.”
