In a continuation of the case involving former Petroleum resources minister, Diezani Alison Madueke, absence of the presiding judge in the case she filed to challenge the order obtained by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for final forfeiture of her seized assets was on Monday led to her case being stalled.
When the matter was called for hearing, it was noted that Justice Inyang Ekwo of the Federal High Court in Abuja, was attending a seminar at the National Judicial Institute in Abuja and as such the case was adjourned till November 21.
Diezani, through her counsel, Mike Ozekhome (SAN), had sued EFCC in the suit marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/21/2023, dated and filed January 6, 2023 where she sought five orders from the court.
One of the orders she sought an order of court was to extend the time for her to seek leave to apply for an order to set aside the anti-graft agency’s public notice issued to conduct a public sale on her property.
Madueke argued that the various orders were issued without jurisdiction and “ought to be set aside ex debito justitiae.”
According to her, she noted that she was neither served with the charge sheet and proof of evidence in any of the charges nor any other summons regarding the criminal charges brought against her.
Through her lawyers, she argued that the courts were misled into making several final forfeiture orders on her assets through 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 this honourable 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.”
The orders were made without recourse to the constitutional right to fair hearing and right to property accorded the applicant by the constitution The applicant was never served with the processes of court in all the proceedings that led to the order of final forfeiture,” she said.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) however asked the court to dismiss the suit.
Madueke has been facing legal battles against the Nigerian government for years, after she was accused of monumental
corruption in the petroleum industry.