A former Nigerian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom and campaign coordinator for former President Goodluck Jonathan, Dr. Dalhatu Tafida, has revealed that a sizable percentage of the ruling class in the immediate past dispensation knew about the “naked, blatant stealing” of public funds by former Minister of Petroleum Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke but the president made her “untouchable”.
Tafida, also a former Senator revealed this in a recent interview with Galaxy Television.
He said: “The naked, blatant stealing of public property that was there. It was there and we knew it was going on, but you dare not go and tell the president. The untouchable lady in the petroleum industry, you dare not. Nobody, even the Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Okonjo-Iweala, did not have the guts to go and tell the president certain things she knew about the minister, her colleague.
“She was powerful. Even in council during their meeting, she would just pick her bag and just walk out as if she had an assignment. Even if she had taken excuse from the president, she should let her other colleagues know. She would just pack her things and go. That is not a government that Nigerians want to see. That’s why the government failed,” Mr. Tafida said.
TheNewsGuru.com reports that a Federal high court seized N7.6 billion (about $21 million) on Monday from bank accounts linked to the former oil minister accused of corruption as investigators continue to claw back her fortune.
Judge Abdulazeez Anka ordered the immediate forfeiture of the money allegedly held in local bank accounts by Mrs Alison-Madueke, who was once one of Africa’s most prominent female politicians.
Since leaving office in 2015, Alison-Madueke has been implicated in bribery, fraud, misuse of public funds and money laundering cases in Nigeria, Britain, Italy and the United States of America, USA.
