Nigeria Demands U.K. Return Wanted Former-Oil Minister: Report

(Bloomberg) -- The U.K. should return Nigeria’s former petroleum minister to face a corruption trial unless it produces its own charges against her, The Cable reported, citing the West African nation’s top anti-graft official.

A long-running British probe into Diezani Alison-Madueke, who served as petroleum minister from 2010 to 2015, has yet to yield any charges, the news website cited Economic & Financial Crimes Commission Chairman Ibrahim Magu as saying.

The EFCC has enough evidence to prosecute Alison-Madueke, according to a Jan. 21 statement by the commission, which was authorized by a Nigerian court to arraign her in December 2018. In 2017, the commission said it had traced at least $615 million of allegedly illegally acquired cash and properties to the ex-minister.

A spokesman for the U.K.’s National Crime Agency declined to comment when contacted by Bloomberg, while the U.K. Home Office said by email that it could neither confirm nor deny an extradition request had been made by Nigeria. Alison-Madueke has previously denied any wrongdoing. Calls to one of her lawyers, Oscar Onwudiwe, didn’t connect.

To contact the reporter on this story: William Clowes in Abuja at wclowes@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Anthony Osae-Brown at aosaebrown2@bloomberg.net, Paul Richardson, Karl Maier

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