Since she left office last year, Ms Alison-Madueke has been the subject of investigation by anti-graft agencies, who have been probing her dealing while in office. In October last year, Ms Alison-Madueke was arrested by the UK's National Crime Agency (NCA) along with four others and arraigned in court but is currently out on bail.
Now, detectives have been deployed in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, as part of the ongoing probe into her activities and has begun looking at five choice houses believed to be Ms Alison-Madueke. Amid the Port Harcourt operation, another asset of the ex-minister in Abuja, said to be worth over N500m, has been confiscated pending her trial.
Earlier this year, the EFCC had seized a mansion worth N3.58bn from the ex-minister, bringing the haul in Abuja to about N4.08bn of assets believed to be hers. This tracking of the assets is said to be part of the probe of about $10bn allegedly looted in cash and assets by some former public officers.
These properties in Port Harcourt under surveillance, which the EFCC believes belong Ms Alison-Madueke are said to be worth over N3bn. Investigators believe she is at the centre of a corruption scam which pervaded the Nigerian oil sector while she was petroleum minister.
One EFCC source said: “Based on the latest intelligence, we have been able to trace more choice assets to Ms Alison-Madueke in Port Harcourt. We have identified more than five of such assets but we need to verify the ownership by going through some documents before attaching the properties in line with our mandate.
“In the next one week, our team in Port Harcourt would have completed their assignment and we will then release the value of the assets. We are also on the trail of some accomplices who were used for the property deals.”
Comments
Post a Comment