The Federal High Court in Abuja has scheduled the 6th of October, 2025, for the hearing of a case brought by former Petroleum Minister, Diezani Alison-Madueke, seeking to stop the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) from disposing of her seized properties.
Justice Abubakar Umar, who is presiding over the matter, adjourned the hearing to allow Alison-Madueke respond to the filings made by the EFCC.
The suit, referenced as FHC/ABJ/CS/21/2023, was filed through her legal team led by Prof. Mike Ozekhome, SAN.
Alison-Madueke is urging the court to compel the EFCC to reclaim any properties already sold to individuals or corporate entities.
She claims the EFCC initiated a public auction in 2023 without giving her a fair hearing.
The sale, she said, was based on forfeiture orders granted by different courts, even though she was never served with any criminal charges or summons linked to the forfeited assets.
Alison-Madueke alleges the EFCC misled the courts by withholding key facts and securing forfeiture rulings through false claims.
“In many cases, the final forfeiture orders were made against properties which affected the applicant’s interest, the courts were misled into making the final order of forfeiture against the applicant, based on suppression or non-disclosure of materials facts.”
She argued that these forfeiture orders, obtained without her knowledge or presence in court, were invalid and should be voided.
According to her, the courts that granted the orders lacked jurisdiction and failed to consider her constitutional right to fair hearing.
She maintained that she had been outside Nigeria for medical treatment since 2015, which the EFCC was fully aware of.
In its defence, the EFCC filed a counter-affidavit, challenging the merit of the suit.
The affidavit, sworn to by investigator Oyakhilome Ekienabor, stated that thorough investigations led to criminal proceedings against Alison-Madueke across several courts.
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The Commission cited two cases: FHC/ABJ/CR/208/2018, filed in November 2018, and HC/ADYL/56c/2017, filed in July 2017 at the Adamawa State High Court.
According to the EFCC, the properties in question were sold based on valid final forfeiture orders issued by Justice C.A. Obiozor on the 9th of July, 2019, and Justice I. N. Oweibo on the 10th of September, 2019.
The Commission said it placed newspaper advertisements asking interested parties to come forward before the sales.
In a separate legal battle, Alison-Madueke filed a N100 billion defamation suit against the EFCC, accusing the agency of sponsoring damaging publications that labeled her a looter.
In that case, CV/6273/2023, she claimed the narratives subjected her to “public ridicule, odium, contempt, derision and obloquy.”