Jonathan’s Oil Minister, Diezani Arrested And Detained In London For Money Laundering…Granted Bail After Hours In Detention

Nigeria’s former Petroleum Resources minister, Mrs Diezani Alison-Madueke was arrested in London on Friday and detained for several hours during which she was grilled along with four others on bribery and money laundering charges.

Alison-Madueke was minister from 2010 until May 2015 under former president Goodluck Jonathan, who was defeated by Muhammadu Buhari at the polls in the March 28 presidential election. Buhari took office in May promising to root out corruption in Africa’s most populous country, where few benefit from the OPEC member’s enormous energy resources.

The National Crime Agency,NCA which confirmed the arrest on its twitter handle without disclosing the identities of the suspects said its International Corruption Unit had arrested five people across London on suspicion of bribery and money laundering offences on Friday. Alison-Madueke was however granted bail after several hours in custody.

In a sign that the arrest had been coordinated with Nigerian authorities, the EFCC raided and sealed one of Alison-Madueke’s houses in Fredrick Chiluba Avenue in Asokoro district of the capital Abuja.

During her time in office, former central bank governor Lamido Sanusi who has since become the Emir of Kano was sacked after he raised concern about missing $20 billion US dollars in oil revenues which had not been remitted to state coffers by the government-run oil company NNPC between January 2012 and July 2013.

Ordinary Nigerians, tired of seeing no narrowing of the West African country’s wealth gap, have been eagerly waiting to see the results of probes into the oil sector. Buhari said on Sunday in New York, USA that the prosecution of those suspected of misappropriating the NNPC’s revenue under past administrations would begin in a matter of weeks. This may be the fulfilment of that promise or call it threat.

Regarded as the most powerful minister under the Jonathan administration, Diezani was detested by many for her arrogance and several multi-billion dollars deals linked to her.