Ask any youth in Lagos, Accra, Monrovia or Johannesburg, to give you his idea of a man that has “arrived”. He will promptly tell you that you are talking about a man who has two or three fine cars, a fine house in the village and may be one or two in town, a small family and perhaps ten million dollars in his bank account abroad. One does not have to steal the world and pocket it to be ranked as having made it. But this is exactly the belief of many Nigerians who were lucky to have paraded the corridors of power.
The on-going investigations of the stewardship of former government functionaries in Nigeria have continued to throw up mind-boggling discoveries, The latest case occurred during the week. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has said it has uncovered plenty juicy landed property in Dubai allegedly owned by former minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke.
According to the EFCC spokesman, Mr. Wilson Uwajuren, the said buildings are located in E146 Emirates Hill Dubai and J5 Emirates Hill Dubai. The alleged pictures of Diezana’s property in Dubai which were released by the commission to newsmen totaled 14 in number. The commission declared categorically that the numerous property traced to the former minister were proceeds of corruption acquired fraudulently when she held sway as the country’s petroleum minister.
The Acting chairman of the commission, Ibrahim Magu, while speaking to reporters in Abuja, said the commission would stop at nothing in bringing perpetrators of corruption to book, noting that those who stole public funds entrusted to them must be meant to account for it.
He asserted that the commission would interface with the authorities of the Arab Emirates to effect forfeiture of the discovered landed property. It would be recalled that the embattled former minister has been facing trial in London over alleged involvement in misappropriation of public funds while in government.
A civil society group led by the popular artist, Charles Oputa, aka Charly Boy, had staged a protest in Abuja demanding the extradition of Mrs. Alison-Maduekeback to Nigeria to face trial. But she has consistently maintained that she is innocent of all the allegations leveled against her by the EFCC.
