Former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke, has prayed the Abuja Division of the Federal High Court to set aside the bench warrant issued against her on July 24, 2020.

Ms Alison-Madueke, in a motion on notice brought by her counsel, Mike Ozekhome, SAN, before Justice Mobolaji Olajuwon, sought a court order extending the time within which she could seek leave to apply for the order discharging the bench warrant.

Ms Alison-Madueke served as minister between 2010 and 2015 in President Goodluck Jonathan’s government.

The ex-minister, who sought an order granting leave to apply for the order, also urged the court to strike out her name as “a defendant in charge number; FHC/ABJ/CR/208/2018 between the Federal Republic of Nigeria V. Diezani Alison Madueke, pending before this honourable court.”

The motion, which has FRN as complainant/respondent, had Mrs Alison-Madueke as the sole defendant/applicant.

It was brought pursuant to sections 36 (1) and (8), 35 of the 1999 Constitution (as altered), sections 1, 113, 114, 382 (4 & 5) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015; and under the inherent powers of the court as preserved by section 6(6A) of the 1999 Constitution.

The federal government, through the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), had, in an ex-parte motion, sought a bench warrant against Mrs Alison-Madueke on January 24, 2022.

Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu, who granted the order on July 24, 2020, after the anti-corruption agency’s lawyer moved the motion, directed that Mrs Alison-Madueke should be arrested by local or international police anywhere she was sighted within or outside the country.

The development followed the inability of the EFCC to extradite her to the country from the United Kingdom (UK), where she resides, to stand the money laundering trial preferred against her.

The case was, however, reassigned to Justice Olajuwon following the transfer of Ms Ojukwu to the Calabar division of the court in 2021.

In a five-ground attached with the motion, the ex-minister said the bench warrant was issued without jurisdiction and ought to be set aside ex debito justitiae.

She argued that it was issued in breach of her right to a fair hearing as guaranteed by section 36 (1) of the 1999 Constitution (as altered).

She further argued that she had neither been served with the charge sheet and proof of evidence in charge number: FHC/ABJ/CR/208/2018, nor was there any other summons, howsoever and whatsoever, in respect of the criminal charge pending against her before the court.

“The ex-parte application for an order of bench warrant against the defendant/applicant was obtained upon gross misstatements, misrepresentations, non-disclosure, concealment and suppression of material facts, and this honourable court has the power to set aside same ex debito justitiae, as a void order is as good as if it was never made at all,” she concluded.

In the affidavit she deposed to, Mrs Alison-Madueke averred that she had resided in the UK since May 22, 2015, when she voluntarily travelled for medical treatment.

The ex-minister said she travelled to England on May 22, 2015, for medical treatment.

The former minister further alleged that almost contemporaneously with the raid on her residence by officers of the NCA, the officials of the EFCC also broke into and raided her private residence in Abuja and carted away several documents and many items of value.

“All this was done in my absence and without any prior invitation or notice to that effect,” she alleged.

She said she had either read in the media or been informed by close associates and relatives about several forfeiture orders said to have been made in respect of certain monies and property in some charges or other civil proceedings, all of which were usually ascribed and allegedly said to belong to her in the media.

“That I have till date never been served with any court processes in respect of all the aforementioned charges or forfeiture proceedings in Nigeria to enable me to respond or defend myself,” she said.

Mrs Alison-Madueke alleged that the EFCC, which had been filing the said charges or forfeiture proceedings, knew very well she resides in the UK; and had indeed, on occasion, in the past, actually served a particular document on her through the NCA.

According to her, the above document served on the NCA by the EFCC has to do with properties in the UK, which they purported to belong to me.

She alleged that the anti-graft agency’s application was made against her in extremely bad faith to inconvenience and humiliate her.

She said since residing in the UK, she had been living openly and had never attempted to conceal her identity, location and/or home address from any persons or authorities, whether abroad or in Nigeria.

(NAN)