Ex-minister Diezani’s N14.4b jewellery for sale

International auctioneers are to sell the $40 million (about N14.4 billion) jewellery recovered from former Petroleum Resources Minister Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) hinted on Thursday.

The agency’s Acting Chairman, Ibrahim Magu, said auctioneers would also sell off the luxury houses recovered from the former minister and other fraud suspects.

The anti-graft chair spoke at the commission’s Lagos Office during an EFCC stakeholders’ conference on crusade against cybercrime fraudsters.

Besides the jewellery and the luxury houses, Magu said that 242 trailers and tankers recovered from internet scammers will also be auctioned off. The vehicles are in Port Harcourt, Rivers State capital.

The acting chairman took reporters on a tour of the two EFCC facilities in Ikoyi where nearly 100 other vehicles recovered from scammers, including buses and luxury cars, lay idle.

Magu suggested that the current auctioning process often results in forfeited items being sold at ridiculously low prices.

On September 10, a Federal High Court in Lagos permanently forfeited Mrs. Alison-Madueke’s jewellery to the Federal Government.

The jewellery, categorized into 33 sets, include “419 expensive bangles; 315 expensive rings; 304 expensive earrings; 267 expensive necklaces; 189 expensive wristwatches and 174 expensive necklaces and earrings.”

The rest are: 78 expensive bracelets, 77 expensive brooches and 74 expensive pendants.

The ex-minister, who is suspected of involvement in a $2.4 billion fraud, has also lost many luxury properties to the government via court judgments.

– The Nation