By Abiodun Sanusi
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has deleted an Instagram post quoting a former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Allison-Madueke, as speaking on money laundering charges brought against her.
The social media post earlier seen by our correspondent claimed that the former minister spoke in an interview with journalists in the United Kingdom.
However, further checks by our correspondent on Saturday revealed that the unsigned post had been pulled down from the anti-graft agency’s official Instagram handle.
Meanwhile, when contacted over the development, the spokesperson for the EFCC, Dele Oyewale, denied the report, while noting that the report didn’t emanate from nor was it signed by the anti-graft agency.
“The report is not from the EFCC. Anything that is not signed by me is not from us (the EFCC),” Oyewale said.
The PUNCH reports that Allison-Madueke who served under former President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration fled the country following her prosecution by the EFCC over alleged money laundering.
In October 2023, Sunday PUNCH exclusively reported that the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, submitted a warrant of arrest and request to the Crown Prosecution Services of the United Kingdom for her extradition.
The report indicated that the request which was made on the orders of President Bola Tinubu followed a written official request by the EFCC to the office of the AGF earlier in October.
A top Federal Government source had revealed that in making the extradition request, the office of the AGF cited Section 2 (2) of Nigeria’s Extradition Act, CAP E25, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004, and the London Scheme of Extradition within the Commonwealth otherwise known as ‘The Scheme,’ a multilateral treaty which governs extradition between the United Kingdom and Nigeria.
“The EFCC established a prima facie case against Allison-Madueke in a letter to the office of the AGF, after which a magistrate was ordered to issue a warrant of arrest. The Certified True Copy of the warrant of arrest was then attached to the extradition request written to the UK government by the AGF on the orders of the President,” a source had noted.
