Agents of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC)
have allegedly visited two mansions in Dubai, United Arab Emirate (UAE), which
reportedly belong to a former Minister
of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke.
The properties, located at E146 Emirates Hill and J5
Emirates Hill, are said to be worth 74,000,000 dirham (N7.1bn).
Emirates Hill, which has been described as the Beverly Hills
of the United Arab Emirates, is home to some of the richest men in the world
including billionaire Chairman of the Stallion Group, Sunil Vaswani.
Others, who are Diezani’s neighbours, include the immediate
past Prime Minister of Pakistan, Nawaz Sharif; a former President of Pakistan,
Asif Ali Zardari; and Robert Mugabe junior, the son of the President of
Zimbabwe and one of Africa’s longest serving leaders, President, Robert Mugabe.
A source within the EFCC told reports that the anti-graft
agency was already applying for the forfeiture of the properties through the
Office of the Attorney General of the Federation.
If the commission is able to clear all legal hurdles and
ensure the final forfeiture of the property, it would bring the total amount of
cash and assets finally recovered from Diezani to $200million (N70billion).
A detective, who did not want his name mentioned, disclosed
that the anti-graft agency would exploit the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty the
Federal Government had recently signed with the government of the UAE.
The agreements, signed by President Muhammadu Buhari, are
Agreement on Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters, Agreement on Mutual
Legal Assistance in Civil and Commercial Matters, Agreement on the Transfer of
Sentenced Persons and an Extradition Treaty.
The source stated: “We have informed the UAE authorities
that from our investigation, we believe Diezani bought the properties with the
proceeds of crime. The whole process is still ongoing but with the MLAT, signed
by President Buhari, it has made work a lot easier for us.”
The detective explained that before the Federal Government
signed the treaty, the UAE law prevented foreign officials from having access
to properties in the country without the express permission of its owner.
He added that with the new treaty, the UAE authorities were
more cooperative and would readily give information of properties from their
Land Registry System.
Meanwhile, the Chairman, Presidential Advisory Committee
Against Corruption, Prof. Itse Sagay(SAN), who hailed Buhari for signing the
treaty, told journalists that some corrupt senators, who also owned properties
in Dubai, would be made to forfeit them.
Sagay also disagreed with some legal experts who said the
Dubai treaty would need to be ratified by the National Assembly before it could
be activated.
He said: “The UAE MLAT is not a treaty as such but an
agreement; so, it will be operated without their (senators) approval.
No comments:
Post a Comment