Former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke, has asked the Federal High Court in Abuja to stop the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) from selling her seized properties.

Through her lawyer, Chief Mike Ozekhome, she also requested the court to order the EFCC to take back any of her properties that had already been sold to individuals or companies.

She argued that the EFCC started selling her assets in 2023 without giving her a fair hearing. The agency based its decision on final forfeiture orders from different courts in Nigeria.

“In many cases, the final forfeiture orders were made against properties which affected the Applicant’s interest, the courts were misled into making the final order of forfeiture against the Applicant, based on suppression or non-disclosure of material facts.

The several applications upon which the courts made the final order of forfeiture against the Applicant were obtained upon gross misstatements, misrepresentations, non-disclosure, concealment and suppression of material facts and thus court has the power to set aside same ex-debito justitiae, as a void order is as good as if it was never made at all,” Diezani said