She additionally prayed the court docket for; “An order directing the Defendants collectively and severally to pay to the Claimant the sum of N100,000,000,000.00 (100 billion naira) solely as damages for the false, injurious, malicious and libelous publications in opposition to the Claimant within the 1st Defendant’s publishing platform, and on the occasion of each the first and the 2nd Defendants.”
ABUJA– A former Minister for Petroleum Sources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, on Friday, instituted a N100billion defamation go well with in opposition to the Financial and Monetary Crimes Fee, EFCC.
The erstwhile Minister, who left the nation since 2015, within the go well with she filed earlier than a Excessive Court docket of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, alleged that the anti-graft company authored and sponsored a number of publications that portrayed her as a treasury looter.
For example, she alleged that the EFCC, on December 16, 2021, made a publication in opposition to her that was captioned; “Diezani: EFCC uncovers further $72.8 million in Constancy Financial institution.”
She instructed the court docket that the Fee had in 2017, additionally induced to be printed, an article, titled: “Unbelievable!!! EFCC traces N47.2 Billion, $487.5 Million to ex-Minister Diezani Alison-Madueke.”
The previous Minister, within the authorized motion she filed via her crew of legal professionals led by Chief Mike Ozekhome, SAN, insisted that the publications have been completed underneath the supervision of the Legal professional-Basic and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami, SAN, who was cited because the 2nd Defendant within the case.
She instructed the court docket that the articles, which have been broadly printed by the EFCC, was “false, malicious, injurious and meant to decrease the status and integrity of and did certainly decrease the status and integrity of the Claimant within the estimation of proper considering members of the society inside and outdoors Nigeria”.
Extra so, the previous Petroleum Minister, within the go well with marked: CV/6273/2023, maintained that the mentioned defamatory publications introduced her into “public ridicule, odium, contempt, derision and obloquy.”
Due to this fact, she is amongst different issues, in search of; “A declaration that the publication titled, ‘By advantage of an order of the Federal Excessive Court docket of Nigeria sitting in Abuja, Diezani Alison Madueke, had forfeited to the Federal Authorities of Nigeria, the sum of $40,000,000.00, (forty million {dollars}) solely, which jewelries have been discovered and recovered by the Financial and Monetary Crimes Fee within the premises of the Respondent and fairly suspected to have been acquired with proceeds of the Respondent’s illegal actions’, made by the honourable court docket on Monday, twenty fourth day of January, 2022, counting on the false info made obtainable to the court docket by the first Defendant in a court docket course of dated and filed on the 4th day of July, 2019, and broadly printed in print media, on-line and onerous copies by varied media homes are libelous, false, malicious, injurious and meant to decrease the status and integrity of and did certainly decrease the status and integrity of the Claimant within the estimation of proper considering members of the society inside and outdoors Nigeria and in addition introduced the Claimant into public ridicule, odium, contempt, derision and obloquy.
“A declaration that the publication titled ‘By advantage of an order of the Federal Excessive Court docket of Nigeria, sitting in Abuja, the Prosecution Counsel to liaise with the workplace of the Legal professional Basic of the Federation in direction of the extradition of the Defendant’, made by the honourable court docket on the twenty eighth day of October, 2020, counting on the false info made obtainable to the court docket by the first Defendant in a court docket course of dated and filed on the thirteenth day of November, 2018, and broadly printed within the print media, on-line and onerous copies by varied media homes are libelous, false, malicious, injurious; have been meant to decrease the status and integrity of, and did certainly decrease the status and integrity of the Claimant within the estimation of proper considering members of the society inside and outdoors Nigeria and in addition introduced the Claimant into public ridicule, odium, contempt, derision and obloquy.
“A declaration that the claims and publication made by the first Defendant on the sixteenth of December, 2021, to the impact that it had uncovered a further $72.8 Million, in Constancy Financial institution, purportedly belonging to the Claimant; and broadly printed by the first Defendant within the print media, on-line and onerous copies by varied media homes are libelous, false, malicious, injurious; have been meant to decrease the status and integrity of, and did certainly decrease the status and integrity of the Claimant within the estimation of proper considering members of the society inside and outdoors Nigeria and in addition introduced the Claimant into public ridicule, odium, contempt, derision and obloquy.
“A declaration that the false and defamatory assertion made by the first Defendant of and regarding the Claimant on or about seventeenth of February, 2022, (Channels Tv https//:www.channelstv.com→video), to the impact that the Claimant ought to be extradited for stealing a sum of $2.5 Billion belonging to the Nigerian authorities, which she should account for, which was broadly printed by the first Defendant within the print media, on-line and onerous copies by varied media homes are libelous, false, malicious, injurious; have been meant to decrease the status and integrity of, and did certainly decrease the status and integrity of the Claimant within the estimation of proper considering members of the society inside and outdoors Nigeria and in addition introduced the Claimant into public ridicule, odium, contempt, derision and obloquy.”
Other than in search of an order directing each the EFCC and the AGF to retract the mentioned libelous publications in opposition to her, the Claimant additional demanded for an unreserved apology to be printed in at the least three nationwide dailies inside seven days from the date of judgment.
She additionally prayed the court docket for; “An order directing the Defendants collectively and severally to pay to the Claimant the sum of N100,000,000,000.00 (100 billion naira) solely as damages for the false, injurious, malicious and libelous publications in opposition to the Claimant within the 1st Defendant’s publishing platform, and on the occasion of each the first and the 2nd Defendants.”
In the meantime, no date has been fastened for the matter to be heard.