An assistant inspector general of police and head of the National Central Bureau, INTERPOL Nigeria, Mr. Garba Umar, yesterday revealed that the British government rejected the federal government’s request to extradite the former minister of petroleum resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke to Nigeria to stand trial for alleged corruption.
Umar, who is also the head, National Central Bureau, INTERPOL Nigeria, stated this while testifying before the ‘House of representatives ad hoc committee to investigate alleged loss of over $2.4bn in revenue from illegal sale of 48 million barrels of crude in 2015 including crude oil exports from 2014 till date.’
He told the lawmakers that the Nigerian government followed due process in seeking mutual legal assistance from the United Kingdom but the demand was ignored as Alison-Madueke also went to court in the UK to stop her extradition.
“The issue of Diezani, a warrant of arrest was issued. I am sorry to say the government of the UK turned down our request. We followed the MLA – you can check, that is Mutual Legal Assistance – to bring her back home. She went to court because, according to them, they have a system where they check our…let me not go there,” Punch quoted Umar as saying.
However, INTERPOL chief explained why the move was successful in the cases of a former chairman of the defunct pension reform task team, Mr. Abdulrasheed Maina and a former attorney general of the federation and minister of justice, Mr. Bello Adoke.
“In respect of assistance – seeking for assistance, if you remember, we repatriated many Nigerians who were alleged to have swindled the Nigerian Government. I went personally and brought Maina from (Republic of) Niger.
“I brought the former attorney general of the federation from Dubai and many other Nigerians who absconded. We brought them back to face justice and those who are in Nigeria, hiding, we took them back to their various countries to face justice,” he said.
