Diezani Alison-Madueke, the former minister of petroleum resources, has filed an appeal with the Federal High Court in Abuja, asking the court to prevent the EFCC from selling off her confiscated property. Diezani contends in court filings filed by her legal team, headed by Chief Mike Ozekhome, SAN, that the EFCC's intention to sell off her assets after issuing a notice in 2023 is a violation of her fundamental right to a fair trial. Additionally, she is requesting that the court order the anti-graft agency to recover any properties that have already been sold. Diezani asserts that the EFCC's operations are predicated on final forfeiture judgements issued by several courts, but she maintains that these decisions were obtained by lying and withholding crucial facts.
She claims she was never properly served with legal notices or participated in the proceedings that resulted to the forfeiture orders. The former minister also questions the constitutionality of the forfeiture orders, claiming that they were obtained under dubious circumstances and should be set aside. She also claims that she has never been convicted of a crime related to the seized assets, and that the sale of her homes was unjustified. "In many situations, final forfeiture orders were issued against properties affecting the Applicant's interest, and the courts were misled into issuing the final order of forfeiture against the Applicant due to suppression or non-disclosure of material facts.The several applications on which the courts issued the final order of forfeiture against the Applicant were obtained through gross misstatements, misrepresentations, non-disclosure, concealment, and suppression of material facts, and thus the court has the authority to set aside the same ex-debito justitiae, as a void order is as good as if it was never made at all," Diezani stated in part.