£2m wristwatches seized from Diezani, Omokore’s wife – EFCC

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has said it seized wristwatches worth £2m  from the wife of the Chairman of Atlantic Energy Drilling Concepts Nigeria Limited, Mr. Jide Omokore, and a former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke.

The anti-graft agency seized a wristwatch worth £1.4m from Omokore’s wife, while a wristwatch worth £600,000 was seized from Alison-Madueke, a source at the agency told one of Punch’s correspondents.

The source said the agency seized expensive jewellery and the wristwatches during various raids on houses of some suspects on Banana Island, Ikoyi, Lagos, and other places.

The source added that the items seized from the suspects would be displayed to journalists in Nigeria.

The firm of Omokore, who was quizzed in January by the commission, was one of the companies that allegedly received multi-billion dollars worth of public assets without due process from the Jonathan administration.

The company, which was established in 2010, had reportedly not explored any oil when it was curiously awarded controlling stakes in two lucrative oil blocks, OML 30 and 34, for just over $50m each.

The deal, which was signed by Jonathan’s Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke, gave Atlantic Energy Limited a controlling 55 per cent stake

The former minister had been interrogated by the Metropolitan Police on issues relating to money laundering.

The EFCC source said the commission had started analysing information on Nigerians, including the President of the Senate, Dr. Bukola Saraki, and others mentioned in the Panama Paper leaks.

It was gathered that the commission had seized one hospital equipment known as MRI, Medical Resonance Image, from a former Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Adesola Amosu (retd). The equipment is worth N2.6bn.

The EFCC had previously recovered over N2.3bn cash from Amosu, while properties worth over N1bn had been seized from him.

-Punch