Reported by Ariajegbe Sylvia Esezobor
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has opposed the application filed by former Minister of Petroleum Resources Diezani Alison-Madueke to present evidence of her acquittal by the Southwark Crown Court in London, arguing that the judgment of a foreign criminal court is not material or relevant to the specific issues for determination before the Federal High Court in Abuja.
The commission made its position known in a further counter-affidavit dated and filed on October 5, 2026, deposed to by Oyakhilome Ekienabor, a litigation officer in the law firm of EFCC counsel Mofesomo Oyetibo, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria. In the affidavit, the EFCC stated that some of the depositions in Diezani’s application were misleading, immaterial and irrelevant to the substantive issues in her present suit. “The proceedings before the Southwark Crown Court, London, United Kingdom, and the purported acquittal of the applicant therein, are in respect of a proceeding that is not being prosecuted before any Nigerian court and have nothing to do with the substantive suit before this honourable court,” Ekienabor averred. The commission further argued that the order for forfeiture relates exclusively to items of jewellery and does not extend to any other category of assets or properties, and that parties are not permitted to expand the scope of a matter before a court.
The development follows Justice Inyang Ekwo’s earlier decision on July 1, 2026, to grant Diezani’s application to present evidence of the London court judgment. The judge granted the motion on notice moved by Godwin Iyinbor, who appeared for Diezani, after it was not challenged by the EFCC’s counsel at the time. The UK court had, on June 17, 2026, discharged and acquitted the former minister of criminal allegations of bribery brought against her by British prosecutors. The case involved five counts of accepting bribes and one count of conspiracy to commit bribery, with prosecutors alleging that she received lavish benefits and enjoyed what they described as a life of luxury in London, funded by oil and gas industry figures seeking favourable treatment and lucrative contracts in Nigeria’s petroleum sector. Diezani maintained throughout the trial that she neither accepted bribes nor exercised direct control over the award of government contracts, and a jury at the London court returned not-guilty verdicts.
Against this development, Diezani filed a suit before Justice Ekwo seeking to reclaim her forfeited assets. In the amended originating motion marked FHC/ABJ/CS/21/2023, she sued the EFCC as the sole respondent. The former minister, who served as petroleum minister between 2010 and 2015 under former President Goodluck Jonathan, left Nigeria in 2015 shortly after leaving office and commenced the suit in 2023 to stop the auctioning of her forfeited assets. She filed an amended version of the suit in February 2025, and in the aftermath of her acquittal in June, filed an application to showcase the UK judgment as evidence of her innocence and the legitimate acquisition of the assets.
When the case was called on Tuesday, October 6, 2026, Mrs Queen-Ubokutom Uwe, who appeared for Diezani, informed the court that the matter was slated for the hearing of the EFCC’s preliminary objection and their originating motion. She told the court that the commission had just served them with a motion prior to the commencement of the hearing, which was the respondent’s further counter-affidavit to their further supplementary affidavit. She equally reminded the court of their motion to regularise their processes. Responding, Paul Mgbeoma, counsel for the respondent, expressed surprise at the rate at which Diezani kept filing processes in the matter as though it were an election petition case, and told the court that he was ready to proceed with the hearing. Justice Ekwo consequently fixed November 11, 2026, for the hearing of the motions.
Diezani’s legal team, led by Professor Mike Ozekhome, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, has maintained that the June 17 acquittal was a material development that occurred after the filing of the earlier processes and should therefore be admitted. Ozekhome argued that the Nigerian case challenged the EFCC’s public notice for the auction or sale of properties and personal effects, which, according to him, affected Diezani’s proprietary rights. He contended that the commission was seeking to impose serious proprietary consequences on the former minister without a conviction, fair hearing or strict compliance with applicable forfeiture procedures. He said the UK acquittal was relevant to issues including the absence of a conviction, a fair hearing, due process and the safeguards required before the irreversible deprivation of property, and stressed that Diezani was not asking the Nigerian court to sit on appeal over the UK judgment or automatically treat the foreign decision as conclusive, but rather to place a new and material fact before the court for consideration.
The EFCC’s position is that the assets in question were auctioned off based on court orders, and that there is nothing in the public sale notice indicating that any of the properties listed therein belong to Diezani. The commission has consistently maintained that the Nigerian proceedings are distinct from the UK case and that the foreign acquittal cannot be used to alter the issues already before the Federal High Court. The matter will return to court on November 11, when Justice Ekwo is expected to hear the EFCC’s preliminary objection and the substantive motions.
The case has drawn significant public attention because of Diezani’s prominence as a former minister and the scale of the assets linked to her. Her acquittal in the United Kingdom does not automatically resolve the Nigerian proceedings, where the legal framework, the evidence and the parties involved are different. The question before Justice Ekwo is whether the UK judgment is relevant to the Nigerian suit, and the answer will determine whether the acquittal becomes part of the evidence in the asset recovery case or whether it remains, as the EFCC contends, a foreign proceeding with no bearing on the Nigerian matter.
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