SERAP urges Tinubu to share details of Alison-Madueke $52.88m recovered asset deal
The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has called on the Bola Tinubu-led administration to reveal details of the agreement it recently signed with the United States for the return of $52.88 million in assets linked to Diezani Alison-Madueke, former minister of petroleum.
SERAP made the call in a post on its X handle on Friday night.
While there are no details of the agreement at the moment, Minister of Justice Lateef Fagbemi said that $50 million of the assets recovered would be deployed by the World Bank for rural electrification project.
Fagbemi said $2 million would be deployed to the International Institute of Justice to fight corruption and enhance the justice system.
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Fagbemi made the statements about the $52 million in Abuja during a formal signing ceremony of the asset agreement between the United States and Nigeria that took place on Friday.
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Recalls that Madueke was Nigeria’s petroleum resources minister under President Goodluck Jonathan.
After her tenure as minister, Madueke has been embroiled in a series of financial scandals.
The financial issues involving Madueke started in 2013 after former Central Bank Governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi wrote a letter to then-president Jonathan on how there were unremitted funds to the Federal Government from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (now Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited) running to the tune of $20 billion under Madueke’s leadership.
She was accused of awarding multi-billion projects without due process, alongside a case against her by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission accusing her of money laundering.
In 2023, the United States Department of Justice announced that it had retrieved $53 million in profits from bribes paid to Diezani by Kolawole Aluko and Olajide Omokore, two Nigerian businessmen, and others, to use her influence as minister to direct lucrative contracts to their companies.
The proceeds of the contracts were worth over $100 million and were used to purchase various assets in California and New York.
Shortly before Jonathan’s administration ended, Madueke exited the country. Since then, numerous efforts to extradite her have proved abortive, although there has been forfeiture of some of her properties in Nigeria to the Federal Government.
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