The Federal High Court in Abuja on Wednesday granted former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke, permission to present evidence of her acquittal by the Southwark Crown Court in London in her ongoing legal battle to recover assets forfeited to the Federal Government.
Justice Inyang Ekwo granted the application after counsel to the former minister, Godwin Iyinbor, moved a motion on notice seeking leave to file a supplementary affidavit informing the court of the recent judgment in the United Kingdom.
The application was not opposed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Southwark Crown Court on June 17 discharged and acquitted Alison-Madueke of criminal bribery allegations brought against her in the UK.
The former minister had instituted the suit, marked FHC/ABJ/CS/21/2023, against the EFCC, seeking to reclaim assets previously forfeited.
At Wednesday’s proceedings, both parties regularised their court processes before Iyinbor urged the court to grant leave to file the further affidavit, arguing that the UK court’s judgment constituted a fresh and material development relevant to the case.
He also asked the court to deem the supplementary affidavit as properly filed.
Responding, EFCC counsel, Mofesomo Oyetibo, SAN, confirmed receipt of the application but argued that it was intended to waste the court’s time.
“They just want to bring to your lordship’s attention that the applicant has been exonerated in UK,” Oyetibo said.
Justice Ekwo, however, asked whether the anti-graft agency intended to oppose the application. Oyetibo replied that the EFCC had no objection.
The judge subsequently granted the application and adjourned the matter until October 6 for hearing. He also directed that both the EFCC’s preliminary objection and the substantive suit would be heard together on the next adjourned date.
In the application filed on behalf of Alison-Madueke by Prof. Mike Ozekhome (SAN), the former minister argued that she approached the court to challenge, among other issues, the EFCC’s public notice announcing the auction and sale of properties and personal effects allegedly belonging to her.
According to the application, “A major plank of the applicant’s case before this honourable court is that the respondent had sought to visit the applicant with grave proprietary consequences without conviction, without fair hearing, and without strict compliance with the relevant statutory provisions regulating forfeiture, management and disposal of properties.”
Ozekhome noted that Alison-Madueke filed her amended originating motion on February 19, 2025, following leave granted by the court two days earlier.
He argued that her acquittal by the Southwark Crown Court on June 17, 2026, represented a significant development directly relevant to the issues before the court.
“The said subsequent development is material and relevant to the applicant’s case, particularly as it relates to the issues of absence of conviction, fair hearing, due process, propriety of irreversible proprietary deprivation, and the need for strict compliance with statutory safeguards before disposal of properties affecting the applicant’s proprietary rights,” the application stated.
The senior lawyer clarified that the former minister was not asking the Nigerian court to treat the UK judgment as binding or to sit on appeal over the foreign decision.
Rather, he said the application was intended to place before the court a material fact that emerged after the commencement of the suit and would assist it in reaching a just determination.
Ozekhome maintained that the evidence was unavailable when the initial court processes were filed and urged the court to exercise its discretion in the interest of justice by admitting the supplementary affidavit.
