EFCC To Amend Charges Against Diezani, Seeks Arrest Warrant Instead

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has taken another dimension with the charges filed against the former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke, as they will now apply for a bench warrant. An EFCC source speaking on the ministers extradition process said that: “There have always been charges against Diezani. However, we had to remove her name for technical reasons. Also, the matter is no longer before Justice Nyako. “We will amend the charges to include her name and then we will apply for a bench warrant because there are many diplomatic processes involved. We will amend the charges against her. “You cannot extradite a person from foreign land without evidence that the person is wanted or the person’s arrest has been ordered by a court.” A bench warrant is an arrest warrant that is ordered by a judge against the defendant in a criminal case. It is typically issued in the case of a failure to appear for trial.”  According to a report by Punch, an anonymous senior EFCC official revealed that a case was filed against Diezani in 2016 but had been withdrawn. However, with the delay by the UK authorities, the commission has decided to personally handle the matter. The source  further revealed that  the EFCC had filed charges against Diezani alongside Omokore and Aluko; a former Managing Director of Nigerian Petroleum Development Company Limited, Victor Briggs; a former Group Executive Director, Exploration and Production of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation; Abiye Membere; and several others before Justice Bina Nyako in 2016. They accused were arraigned before a Federal High Court in Abuja on nine counts bordering on money laundering and procurement fraud. However, before taking the defendants’ plea, Justice Nyako had requested that the names of the accused persons not present in court be taken off the charge. To this, Aluko whose name appeared in all the counts as well as Diezani who appeared on count eight were excused from the charges.Photo Credit: Getty

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