Lead counsel to former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison Madueke, Barrister Mike Ozekhome has asked Nigerians to accord her fair hearing and allow the UK court proceedings against her take their natural course to avoid prejudice to her and the ongoing subjudice UK proceedings against her.
Ozekhome warned that those purveyors and peddlers who habitually spin outright false, unfounded, defamatory, unintelligent and indefensible narratives to denigrate and humiliate her should please find better use of their time and leave he alone.
In a highly worded statement on Sunday, Ozekhome said “Let the law take its natural course without interference. We humbly pray”.
He said “my chambers makes this intervention in the public domain as Solicitors to Diezani Alison-Madueke (DAM), the former Honourable Minister of Petroleum Resources (HMPR). As her Solicitors, we are fully versed in and conversant with her present ordeal and the entire facts surrounding her matters both here in Nigeria and abroad.
“So, we write from the vantage position of one that is aware of the cocktail of lies that have been spurned around her cases in the last ten years.
“Many of the narratives are outrightly false; some others sheer outlandish speculations; and most, simply bizarre stories cooked up by her traducers to extract a Shylock’s pound of flesh from her for reasons she does not know and cannot even fathom.
“This intervention therefore seeks to correct this skewed narrative and set the records straight for purposes of history. Many Nigerians often talk about wanting ‘technocrats’ to be involved in governance. They desire that people with character and integrity should join politics. We agree with them.
However and regrettably too, now and again and many a time, the same people not only allow, but actually join the bandwagon to mob-lynch those who chose to serve the nation. And we often do this insidiously, covertly and overtly, even when there is no concrete or even any iota of proof that such public officers ever abused their offices or stole from public coffers.
“It is therefore surprising and of great concern to us, to see the level of sustained vilification of an innocent Nigerian citizen who has not yet been tried and found guilty of any offence known to law by any court of law whether in Nigeria or abroad
He dismissed what he called recent deliberate attempt to link her with what has been described as a civil forfeiture of a yacht Galactica, the sale of which was said to have yielded $52.8m to the US government; which sum has since been repatriated to Nigeria.
Diezani Alison-Madueke former minister of petroleum
Ozekhome said “tis is a clear example of the mischievous and cruel sport of tarnishing the image of the lady through a bouquet of consistent, persistent and unrelenting cocktail of falsehoods and misinformation. The purveyors of this line of misinformation term it “name-and-shame”.
“To sell the storyline, the architects ensured they attached Diezani’s name to a recovered yacht which is not in any way linked to her. They now falsely termed it “Diezani loot”. Nothing of the sort ever happened.
“She was never involved in the purchase, use and sale of the said yacht. The yacht Galactica, from information readily available in the public domain and in open sources, was purchased by Mr Kola Aluko who had used the vessel until he agreed to its forfeiture to the United States of America.
“The yacht Galactica was neither owned nor ever used by our client. DAM has in fact never set her eyes on the yacht. Kola Aluko is an experienced businessman who had been in business well before DAM came into office as HMPR.
“The only tenuous basis for deliberately linking DAM to the said yacht is the false narrative that the Strategic Alliance Agreements (SAAs) which were entered into between Kola Aluko & Jide Omokore’s Atlantic Energy companies and NNPC, were allegedly corruptly awarded to the said companies by DAM. DAM was not the GMD of the NNPC as so did not and could not have awarded the said contracts.
“The Galactica Yacht Spin and the Alleged Corrupt Award of the Contract has already been debunked by a competent court of law in Nigeria.
“For the avoidance of doubt, DAM remains the only former minister who has been kept under full focus and investigation in the United Kingdom by the UK authorities, in collaboration with the Nigerian authorities, since 2nd October, 2015.
“This is almost 10 years ago; and just barely one week after she completed and survived a grueling 8- month serial chemotherapy treatments for Triple Negative breast cancer. During this agonizing time, she went into a coma, escaping death by the whiskers. It could only have been God at work that is alive today!
“DAM’s travails over these years have been founded solely on baseless and unfounded speculations and allegations which wrongly alleged that she obtained unlawful gifts and favours from operators within the petroleum industry.
“She had never been accosted or charged with stealing or pilfering government money. These matters of obtaining unlawful gifts and favours are now subject of proceedings against DAM in the United Kingdom.
“It is only recently that DAM was actually charged to court in the UK on the 2nd of October, 2023. She had prior to that date been held in the UK for a prolonged period of over eight years whilst the UK’s authorities conducted their investigation on her.
“ As she had no work papers, she was not permitted to work to fend for herself. She has not even been permitted to leave the UK since the 2nd of October, 2015, till date. Thus, for nearly ten years, DAM has had to depend for her survival, solely and entirely on the goodwill of a few friends and family members to survive”
