Diezani Allison-Madueke
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INTRODUCTION
My chambers makes this intervention in the public domain as Solicitors to Diezani Alison-Madueke ( DAM ),the former Honourable Minister of Petroleum Resources (HMPR). As her Solicitors, we are fully versed in and conversant with her present ordeal and the entire facts surrounding her matters both here in Nigeria and abroad. So, we write from the vantage position of one that is aware of the cocktail of lies that have been spurned around her cases in the last ten years. Many of the narratives are outrightly false; some others sheer outlandish speculations; and most, simply bizzare stories cooked up by her traducers to extract a Shylock’s pound of flesh from her for reasons she does not know and cannot even fathom. This intervention therefore seeks to correct this skewed narrative and set the records straight for purposes of history. Many Nigerians often talk about wanting ‘technocrats’ to be involved in governance. They desire that people with character and integrity should join politics. We agree with them. However and regrettably too, now and again and many a time, the same people not only allow, but but actually join the bandwagon to mob-lynch those who chose to serve the nation. And we often do this insidiously, covertly and overtly, even when there is no concrete or even any iota of proof that such public officers ever abused their offices or stole from public coffers. It is therefore surprising and of great concern to us, to see the level of sustained vilification of an innocent Nigerian citizen who has not yet been tried and found guilty of any offence known to law by any court of law whether in Nigeria or abroad. The person at the receiving end is Citizen Diezani Alison-Madueke (“DAM”).
THE GALACTICA YACHT AND THE FALSE NARRATIVE
We note with concern the recent deliberate attempt to link her with what has been described as a civil forfeiture of a yacht Galactica, the sale of which was said to have yielded $52.8m to the US government; which sum has since been repatriated to Nigeria. This is a clear example of the mischievous and cruel sport of tarnishing the image of the lady through a bouquet of consistent, persistent and unrelenting cocktail of falsehoods and misinformation. The purveyors of this line of misinformation term it “name-and-shame”. To sell the storyline, the architects ensured they attached Diezani’s name to a recovered yacht which is not in any way linked to her. They now falsely termed it “Diezani loot”. Nothing of the sort ever happened. She was never involved in the purchase, use and sale of the said yacht. The yacht Galactica, from information readily available in the public domain and in open sources, was purchased by Mr Kola Aluko who had used the vessel until he agreed to its forfeiture to the United States of America. The yacht Galactica was neither owned nor ever used by our client. DAM has in fact never set her eyes on the yacht. Kola Aluko is an experienced businessman who had been in business well before DAM came into office as HMPR. The only tenuous basis for deliberately linking DAM to the said yacht is the false narrative that the Strategic Alliance Agreements (SAAs) which were entered into between Kola Aluko & Jide Omokore’s Atlantic Energy companies and NNPC, were allegedly corruptly awarded to the said companies by DAM. DAM was not the GMD of the NNPC as so did not and could not have awarded the said contracts.
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THE GALACTICA YACHT SPIN AND THE ALLEGED CORRUPT AWARD OF THE CONTRACT HAS ALREADY BEEN DEBUNKED BY A COMPETENT COURT OF LAW IN NIGERIA.
The fallacy of DAM’s involvement in an alleged corrupt contract which gave birth to proceeds with which the Galactica was supposedly purchased has long been debunked and laid to rest by a Nigerian competent court of law in Charge No. FHC/ABJ/CR/121/2016: Federal Republic of Nigeria vs Olajide Omokore & Others.In that case, the Federal High Court, coram Hon.Justice Nnamdi Dimgba (now of the Court of Appeal), held that the Strategic Alliance Agreements (SAAs) between NNPC and the Atlantic Companies were validly entered into between the said companies and the NNPC. Furthermore, the said companies and their chairman were discharged and acquitted of any offence howsoever in relation to allegedly obtaining the contract or monies realized from it through false representations. They were also exonerated and freed of the offence of money laundering in relation to the said contracts with which they were also charged.The judgement in the case clearly established that the said contracts were properly awarded by NNPC and that the said award followed due process.
To characterize such a forfeiture of a yacht allegedly bought with proceeds of the valid contracts as being linked to DAM simply on account of the legitimate SAAs, which have since been adjudged and held by the court to have been validly entered into between the NNPC and the said companies, is completely preposterous, if not outrightly bizzare.
DAM WAS NEVER A PARTY TO THE SAAs
Even at that, DAM was never a party to the contract process or contract negotiations, or contract selection for the award of the Strategic Alliance Agreements (SAAs) between the NNPC and Atlantic Energy Ltd. That contract process, like all others before and after it, was handled solely by the NNPC which followed its usual contract award due process to the letter. It did not involve DAM in any way or manner.
There was therefore nothing untoward, opaque or illegal whatsoever and howsoever about the SAA award process. As a matter of fact, the terms of the Atlantic Energy SAAs were made even more stringent for the Atlantic companies and constituted a much better deal for Nigeria than the SSAs which were entered into a few years earlier between the NNPC and the ENI-AGIP Multinational.
DAM MERELY ACTED AND DISCHARGED HER DUTIES WITHIN HER STATUTORY RESPONSIBILITIES
It was our client’s statutory duty as the HMPR at the final stage of any contract process, to make final signatory and approval on behalf of the Ministry of Petroleum Resources (MPR). However, NNPC would, as always, have first vetted and carried out all due diligence which include necessary operational and contractual checks and procedures. That would not have involved and did not infact did not involve DAM as the HMPR.
In line with due process and as statutorily required, DAM merely appended her signature to the final approval request letter which was forwarded to the office of the HMPR by the GMD, NNPC. As due process had already been observed and followed, the SAAs were signed off by her as required of her by law. DAM in the usual course of her duties did exactly the same thing every month for each of the hundreds of contracts that she had to sign-off on without any preferential treatment. And that is because it was an integral part of her statutory responsibilities as HMPR. DAM thus merely followed due process to the letter. She never engaged in the operational process of negotiating those contracts as this process was entirely and without exception, within the remit of the NNPC which was an independent entity from her office as HMPR.
DAM WAS NOT INVOLVED IN THE NON-PAYMENT OF CASH CALLS
Let us be very clear about this: the issues of non-payment of the cash-calls that subsequently arose in the Atlantic Energy SAAs had nothing whatsoever to do with the initial contract award which followed due process and was properly made. Those issues arose as a direct result of the manner of operational implementation and supervision and had nothing whatsoever to do with DAM. She was never involved in any way or manner. As a matter of fact in April 2014, as soon as she was brought to her attention by an external multinational head that there were some issues regarding the Atlantic Energy SAAs, she immediately took strong and direct action by promptly alerting Mr. President, the Permanent Secretary (PS), of MPR and the GMD-NNPC, in writing, and directed that an immediate two-week investigation be carried out. Following the resulting investigative report, DAM again directed in writing to the PS, MPR and the GMD-NNPC, with Mr. President’s knowledge and approval, that a process for the recovery of the unpaid cash-call be immediately put in place.
DAM NEVER SOLD OFF OIL BLOCKS CONTAINED IN THE SAAs
It must therefore be emphasized that although a portion of the media severally unfairly vilified and accused DAM of purportedly selling off the oil blocks contained in the SAAs to Atlantic Energy, she never gave such a directive or approval.
EARLIER WILD ALLEGATIONS AND THE PET PHRASE, “DIEZANI-LOOT”
This is not the first time this genre of outlandish allegations have been levelled against DAM. Sometime ago, she was widely but falsely accused of owning a diamond-studded bikini underwear allegedly valued at $12,000,000!. Incredible!! The allegation was so unnatural, wild and baseless that the then Executive Chairman of the EFCC, Abdulrasheed Bawa, was compelled to publicly deny and denounce the vile allegation as being not only false, but preposterous. Similarly, when certain people were accused of bribing INEC officials, the bribe sums were unjustifiably linked to DAM and labelled, as is always mischievously done, ‘Diezani-loot’. Yet, all that she did was to merely coordinate the raising of campaign funds for the then ruling political party that controlled the government she served under at that material time. She readily handed over the raised funds to the party which then determined how the said funds were disbursed without involving her. She was not in any way a beneficiary of the funds realized.
DAM WAS NAMED IN A CRIMINAL CHARGE WITHOUT ANY LINKAGE WHATSOEVER
DAM was gleefully named many times on the face of a charge filed against Atlantic Energy in Charge No. FHC/ABJ/CR/121/2016: Federal Republic of Nigeria vs Olajide Omokore & Others. In the said charge preferred by the EFCC in respect of an alleged bribing of some INEC officials, DAM was never made a party or Defendant to the said charge such as to enable her defend herself. Yet they mentioned her name severally. She was forced to apply to be joined as a Defendant to the said counts in the charge to enable her clear her name. Surprisingly and curiously, the application for joinder was strangely and fiercely opposed by the same EFCC that filed the charge, leading to the striking out of her name from the said charge sheet.
HOW THE WORD “ DIEZANI LOOT” EXCITES MANY, EVEN THOUGH PATENTLY FALSE
In spite of these clear verifiable facts which are available in the public domain, DAM has continued to be the subject of dersion and grave unproven allegations that are demonstrably false and patently ill-motivated. This traducing notwithstanding, the harrowing experience of cancer-related health challenges she has been going through in the last ten years of her life would not allow her a breathing space. It appears that nothing excites the purveyors and peddlers of these orchestrated misinformation and falsehood more than spinning and heaping all forms of false allegations on her, no matter how palpably false, baseless, disingenuous and unbelievable. It satiates their over- bloated egos to tar her with the paintbrush of shame.
DAM HAS ALWAYS BEEN UPRIGHT IN THE DISCHARGE OF HER DUTIES
DAM worked conscientiously and discharged her duties diligently to the best of her ability in service to her fatherland. She remains the only Petroleum Minister to have left behind, a staggering sum of over
$4Billion in the NLNG Account representing Gas Sector Investment Funds. She did this to steady the incoming administration of former president, Muhammadu Buhari, at the end of her tenure in May, 2015. She did this in the hope of ensuring continuity in the development of the critical Gas sector). This sum which was saved for the development of the important Gas Sector was summarily spent and disbursed immediately by the Buhari administration upon assumption of office. No one appears interested in this foresight or patriotic inclination.
THE SENSITIVE NATURE OF THE POSITION OF HMPR
It should be appreciated by all that DAM’S position as the Federal Minister of Petroleum Resources was an extremely sensitive one that required careful navigation. This is a position which had before then and till now been mostly reserved for and been occupied by the ruling Presidents of Nigeria in their personal capacities. This position came not only with its burdens, but also with special legitimate privileges which have since formed the linchpin and cornerstone of the underlying sundry accusations levied against her, but without any proof of having committed any offence known to law.
DAM HAS BEEN INVESTIGATED FOR 10 YEARS WITHOUT ANY EVIDENCE OF CORRUPTION
For the avoidance of doubt, DAM remains the only former minister who has been kept under full focus and investigation in the United Kingdom by the UK authorities, in collaboration with the Nigerian authorities, since 2nd October, 2015. This is almost 10 years ago; and just barely one week after she completed and survived a grueling 8- month serial chemotherapy treatments for Triple Negative breast cancer. During this agonizing time, she went into a coma, escaping death by the whiskers. It could only have been God at work that is alive today!
CONFIRMATION BY THE PAST EFCC CHAIRMAN THAT DAM IS INNOCENT OF THESE VILE ALLEGATIONS
It is of interest to note that on two separate occasions, the immediate past Executive Chairman of the EFCC, Abdulrasheed Bawa, confirmed to DAM’s other lawyers that no funds from the coffers of the Federal Government of Nigeria have been found ever stolen by her; and that no such funds had ever been traced to her.
DAM’S TRAVAILS ARE DRIVEN BY WILD SPECULATIONS AND PUBLIC LYNCHING MINDSET
DAM’s travails over these years have been founded solely on baseless and unfounded speculations and allegations which wrongly alleged that she obtained unlawful gifts and favours from operators within the petroleum industry. She had never been accosted or charged with stealing or pilfering government money. These matters of obtaining unlawful gifts and favours are now subject of proceedings against DAM in the United Kingdom.
DAM HAS BEEN DEPENDING ONLY ON GOODWILL FOR HER SURVIVAL
It is only recently that DAM was actually charged to court in the UK on the 2nd of October, 2023. She had prior to that date been held in the UK for a prolonged period of over eight years whilst the UK’s authorities conducted their investigation on her. As she had no work papers, she was not permitted to work to fend for herself. She has not even been permitted to leave the UK since the 2nd of October, 2015, till date. Thus, for nearly ten years, DAM has had to depend for her survival, solely and entirely on the goodwill of a few friends and family members to survive.
SALIENT FACTS TO NOTE ABOUT DAM BUT WHICH HER TRADUCERS WILL WANT BURIED
The following facts are worth noting about DAM for the sake of history and posterity:
DAM was the most senior black woman ever in the African Oil and Gas Public Sector (between 2010 & 2015).
DAM was the first female Executive Director of Shell Petroleum Development Company Nigeria, in its entire history in Nigeria; a position she did not lobby for. She was identified, recognised and appointed, through her sheer dint of hard work and sense of professionalism by the relevant Global Heads of Shell in the Hague, Netherlands,
DAM has so far been the first and only female Petroleum Minister in Nigeria’s history. She never lobbied for this position. She was actually initially nominated without her knowledge.
DAM has been the first and only female President of OPEC in the organization’s entire history since its founding in 1960. She also did not lobby for this lofty position.
DAM was nominated for and served in various federal ministerial positions under two separate Presidents; positions she never sought nor lobbied for.
OUR PLEA TO ALL
We plead, as her lawyers, with all and sundry that she ge accorded fair hearing and that the process of these UK court proceedings be allowed to take their natural course to avoid prejudice to her in the ongoing subjudice UK proceedings against her. Those purveyors and peddlers who habitually spin these outrightly false, unfounded, defamatory, unintelligent and indefensible narratives to denigrate and humiliate her should please find better use of their time and leave DAM alone. Let the law take its natural course without interference. We humbly pray.
*Prof Mike Ozekhome, is SAN, CON, OFR, LLD
