The acting chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ibrahim Magu has given an assurance that former minister of petroleum Diezani Alison-Madueke will be repatriated before the end of the year to face financial crime charges levelled against her.
The EFCC boss on Wednesday, while speaking to journalists in Ibadan the Oyo state capital after an inspection of the ongoing recruitment exercise for the commission, said that Mrs Alison-Madueke has been enjoying protection outside Nigeria.
He revealed that the country where she is currently being held have not been able to establish any offence she has committed.
“This year we must get her because they have no reason to keep her. They have not taken her to court and we are in the fifth year, why should we be investigating a matter for five years?
“It’s a straight forward case, you know it’s a financial crimes investigation; it’s not a murder case, this is a straightforward case, if you don’t have any sufficient evidence to establish any offence, bring her back, we have more than enough evidence to take her to court.
“I don’t know why they are protecting her, release her let her come back to Nigeria; they are giving her protection for whatever reason and they are yet to disclose whatever offence she has committed, they are only relying on the evidence we have recovered,” he stressed.
Meanwhile, Mr Magu maintained that the whistleblower policy is still very active, but suffers setback due to the court process involved.
He stressed that some details of the process need to be fine-tuned.
“The whistleblower policy is very active and working, the only thing is that it is being slowed down because you have to go to court to exhaust all the processes; the court would have to declare the amount that is recovered and it is ready for the Federal Government, then we will give the whistleblower their share.
“We are relying on you to expose them so that we can go after them, we have a working relationship with the FBI and other law enforcement agencies in almost all the countries and we have been able to procure the extradition of the former AGF, Adoke,” he stated.
