7th May, 2023
By Taiye Agbaje
Former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs Diezani Alison-Madueke, has prayed a Federal High Court in Abuja to set aside the bench warrant issued against her on July 24, 2020.
Alison-Madueke, in a motion on notice brought by her counsel, Chief Mike Ozekhome, SAN, before Justice Mobolaji Olajuwon, sought a court order extending the time within which she could seek leave to apply for the order discharging the bench warrant.
Alison-Madueke served as minister between 2010 and 2015 in President Goodluck Jonathan’s government.
The ex-minister, who sought an order granting leave to apply for the order, also urged the court to strike out her name as “a defendant in charge number; FHC/ABJ/CR/208/2018 in the Federal Republic of Nigeria V. Diezani Alison Madueke, pending before this honourable court.”
The motion, which has FRN as complainant/respondent, had Alison-Madueke as the sole defendant/applicant.
It was brought pursuant to Sections 36 (1) and (8), 35 of the 1999 Constitution (as altered); Section 1, 113, 114, 382 (4 & 5) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015; and under the inherent powers of the court as preserved by Section 6(6A) of the 1999 Constitution.
The Federal Government, through the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), had, in an ex-parte motion, sought a bench warrant against Alison-Madueke.
Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu, who granted the order on July 24, 2020, after the anti-corruption lawyer moved the motion, directed that Alison-Madueke should be arrested by local or international police anywhere she was sighted within or outside the country.
The development followed the inability of the EFCC to extradite her back to the country from the United Kingdom (UK) where she resides to stand the money laundering trial preferred against her.
The case was, however, reassigned to Justice Olajuwon following the transfer of Ojukwu to the Calabar division of the court in 2021.
The ex-minister, in a five-ground attached with the motion, said the bench warrant was issued without jurisdiction, and ought to be set aside ex debito justitiae.
She argued that it was issued in breach of her right to fair hearing as guaranteed by Section 36 (1) of the 1999 Constitution (as altered).
She further argued that she had neither been served with the charge sheet and proof of evidence in charge number: FHC/ABJ/CR/208/2018, nor was there any other summons howsoever and whatsoever in respect of the criminal charge pending against her before the court.
Alison-Madueke submitted that the court was misled into issuing the bench warrant against her based on suppression or non-disclosure of material facts.
NAN