Jewelry worth N14.6 billion was seized from former Minister of Petroleum, Diezani Alison-Madueke by the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC), the anti-graft agency had said.
This was disclosed on Friday by the EFCC Chairman, Abdulrasheed Bawa, before the House of Representatives Ad Hoc Committee investigating the assessment and status of recovered loot in Abuja.
Bawa revealed that Diezani’s jewellery is still in the custody of the agency, noting it has finally been forfeited to the Federal Government.
He stressed that it had not been auctioned off.
The EFCC boss stressed that the houses seized from the former Minister was also valued at $80 million (about N37, 000, 000, 000).
According to Bawa, the court processes, procedures and administrative exigencies, are said to have stalled the process of having some of the seized assets auctioned by the anti -graft agency. He noted that the agency would henceforth deal with the seized assets case by case at the courts in order to quickly dispose the assets.
“Already the Federal Government has set up a committee under the chairmanship of the Solicitor-General for the Federation and I think they are working tirelessly.
“We have EFCC representatives from that committee and we believe at the end of the day Nigerians are going to appreciate what that committee will come out with in term of the mandate given to them,” he said.
Bawa who stated that he was not a member of the committee to know how soon the assets were going to be disposed said in its quest to transform the agency, it would soon digitalise its processes.
Four additional departments which include Intelligence, procurement, Internal Affairs and the Information Communication Technology Department had been created and upgraded to restore confidence. Bawa said.
According to NAN, Bawa said there was no loot that had been re-looted as being speculated, stressing that going forward, the EFCC would be different and Nigerians would be the better for it.