Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders (CACOL)
The Humanity Centre: 610, Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway, Ijaye Bus stop, Ijaye-Ojokoro.
P.O. Box 1592, Agege, Lagos, Nigeria. Tel: 01-4736534, 08023226276, 08037194969
www.thehumanitycentre.org E-mail: cacolc@yahoo.com, cacol@thehumanitycentre.org
Name, Nail, Shame and Shun Corrupt Leaders Anywhere, Everywhere
02 October, 2013
The Chairman
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission
Thro: Lagos Zonal Office
15A, Awolowo Way
Ikoyi
Lagos
Dear Sir,
CALL FOR PROBE INTO THE ALLEGED CORRUPT ACTIVITIES OF THE PETROLEUM MINISTER, MRS. DIEZANI ALLISON-MADUEKE
The Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders (CACOL) as a group of civil-society, community-based and other non-governmental organizations with the objective of fighting corruption and corrupt persons by any means possible at all levels in Nigeria is aware of so many calls on your Commission to urgently commence a probe into the various allegations of corrupt practices levelled against the person of the Minister of Petroleum, Mrs. Diezani Alison Madueke; such allegations which include reckless abuse of office, wastage of the nation’s resources under the guise of performing her official functions, engagement in questionable deals, connivance with some oil and gas multinationals to rob Nigeria of large chunk of money, direct stealing of the nation’s money, using her position and siphoning the nation’s earnings to foreign lands for personal interests and so on.
Since the appointment of the said minister, the country is reported to have lost billions of dollars through the aforementioned avenues. So much noise has been made from various quarters which even include that of the House of Representatives of recent, without any significant response whatsoever. An invitation from the hallowed chambers to the minister was not honoured. We refuse however to believe that there exists any clique of the “untouchables” to which she probably belongs and this is why we are here joining our voices to others to demand that your highly esteemed, responsible and responsive Commission, commence, without delay, the process of probing the office of the minister, beaming your investigative searchlight on those areas of her activities.
An online publication, Economic and Financial Times (copy of publication attached for your reference) reported a shocking revelation by a free daily newspaper in Vienna, Austria called
“Heute”, of a secret mansion villa worth 20 Million Euro bought by the Oil Minister, Mrs Allison Madueke. The headline reads “Ministerin aus Hungerland Kauft sich 20-Millonen-Villa in Wien” (Female Minister From Hungerland Buys Herself 20 Million Euro Villa In Vienna).
Another online publication, DailyPost (copy of publication attached for your reference) also revealed how Deziani Allison-Madueke`s family were travelling around the globe in private jet, funded by the government, which she claimed was broke and could no longer afford fuel subsidy, while the Nigerian masses suffer. Photos obtained from DailyPost Nigeria, revealed Diezani Alison-Madueke’s sons, living like Kings in America, complete with private jet travels, luxury ship vacations, frolicking with local and international superstars.
More so, the House of Representatives instituted an investigation into the allegations of corruption made against the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke. The probe was based on an allegation involving a whooping N59 trillion fraud in the award of oil blocks.
The probe by the House was in response to a petition by five oil producing communities in Delta State. According to the allegations, the NNPC, which the minister sits atop its board, collaborated with Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) Limited in an N58.9trn illicit oil deal that allegedly shortchanged the oil-producing communities in Delta State.
The communities namely — Itsekiri ethnic nationality, Ijaw ethnic nationality, Urhobo ethnic nationality, Isoko ethnic nationality and Ndokwa ethnic nationality that were led by Chief Emami Ayiri, Chief Aribogha Johnny, Olorogun Jaro Egbo, Zino Onaemor and Emmanuel Orwti respectively, claimed that Alison-Madueke secretly transferred production rights in OMLs 26, 30, 34, and 42 to Atlantic Energy Drilling Concept Limited, allegedly owned by Mr. Jide Omokore, which neither tendered for, nor bided for the blocks, just two days before the 2011 dissolution of the Federal Executive Council (FEC).
Furthermore, an online publication Saharareporters, in its publication 0f August 19, 2013 detailed the report of a group that tags itself whistleblowers against corruption which accused Alison-Madueke, of squandering millions of dollars of public funds to rent private jets for the conduct of her official activities. In a petition to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) (a copy is attached for your reference), the group, known as Crusader for Good Governance,” demanded that Mrs. Allison-Madueke be investigated for her habit of spending extravagant sums to rent private jets for her official trips. According to the petition, she has spent some N2 billion on private jet rentals.
The group also accused Mrs. Alison-Maduekwe of spending $300,000 on an average international trip outside of Nigeria and spends as much as $500,000 on trips to such destinations as China, Malaysia and several North American countries.
OUR PRAYERS
Specifically, we are asking you to investigate:
1. the 58.9trn deal the Minister had with Shell as contained in the petition of the five communities;
2. the 20 Million Euro Mansion bought by the Mrs. Alison-Madueke in Vienna, Austria as reported by the online publication;
3. the Minister’s involvement in the high rate of oil theft which is rampant in her tenure;
4. Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke’s sons scandalous private jet lifestyle.
Section 7 (1) a and b of the EFCC Establishment Act vested the power in your Commission to, “cause investigations to be conducted as to whether any person, corporate body or organisation has committed an offence under this Act or other law relating to economic and financial crimes or cause investigations to be conducted into the properties of any person if it appears to the Commission that the person’s lifestyle and extent of the properties are not justified by his source of income. We are therefore requesting that the EFCC cause an investigation of Mrs. Allison Madueke on the said allegations in line with the power vested in the Commission.
The Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders (CACOL) as a group of organizations with the objective of fighting corruption and corrupt persons at all level would not want, or encourage anyone to jump into any conclusion on any allegation without availing those alleged the opportunity to defend themselves. We therefore have not concluded that the alleged is either guilty or innocent. However we have reasons to believe that the matter is on the verge of being swept under the carpet going by various political manoeuvrings noticeable among the ruling elite in the country and their political overlords and associated.
We thank you in anticipation of your prompt and favourable response and action on this request.
Yours faithfully,
Debo Adeniran
Executive Chairman, CACOL
08037194969