5 Others Arrested as Ex-Petroleum Minister, Alison-Madueke Granted Bail and Passport Seized

 

On Friday, October 2nd, the Nigeria media went abuzz with reports that Nigeria’s former Minister of Petroleum, Diezani Alison-Madueke, was arrested in UK.

 

It has now been reported that she was released from detention several hours after agents of the UK National Crime Agency arrested her from her Westminster City home in London.

 

She was taken to the Charing Cross Police station in London where she was booked, interrogated and later granted bail. It was disclosed that that the former minister’s international passport was taken from her to prevent her possible flight from the UK. 

 

On her release, the former minister, who oversaw a series of controversial deals during her tenure as Petroleum Minister under President Goodluck Jonathan, returned to her flat on Edmund’s Terrace in Westminster City.

 

The UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) has also confirmed that its agents had arrested five individuals in connection with international bribery and corruption. The agency revealed that the arrested persons were aged between 21 and 60 years of age.

 

A source at the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) also revealed that, while Alison-Madueke was being interrogated in the UK, EFCC agents were also searching the offices of Nigerians suspected of being the former minister’s co-conspirators. 

 

"The EFCC has sealed Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke’s Abuja home in Asokoro as well as the SPOG Oil offices of Jide Omokore and also Omokore’s home in the Ikoyi area of Lagos," an EFCC source told SaharaReporters.

 

Mrs. Alison-Madueke is expected to return to the Charing Cross Police station on this Monday for further questioning.