Diezani forfeited jewellery worth N14.6bn – EFCC

Diezani Alison-Madueke

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has said it seized jewellery worth over N14 billion from former minister of petroleum Diezani Alison-Madueke.

The anti-graft agency’s chairman Abdulrasheed Bawa made this known at the House of Representatives ad hoc committee investigating the assessment and status of recovered loot on Friday in Abuja.

He also said the houses seized from the former minister is valued at $80 million.

Mr Bawa said that Diezani’s jewellery are still in the custody of the agency, adding that it had not been auctioned but had been finally forfeited to the Federal Government.

He said that court processes, procedures and administrative exigencies had stalled some of the seized assets to be auctioned by the anti-graft agency.

Bawa however said that the agency would henceforth deal with the seized assets case by case at the courts in order to quickly dispose the assets.

“We have EFCC representatives from that committee and we believe at the end of the day Nigerians are going to appreciate what that committee will come out with in term of the mandate given to them,” he said.

Asked when the committee would wind up so the assets could be disposed, Bawa said that he was not a member of the committee to know how soon the assets were going to be disposed.

Bawa said that in its quest to transform the agency, it would soon digitalise its processes, adding that it had also created and upgraded four additional department to restore confidence.