N14.46bn Diezani jewellery, other recovered property not yet disposed – EFCC chair

He said the jewellery, valued at N14.60 billion and other property, estimated at over $80 million, had not been auctioned.

The chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Abdulrasheed Bawa, has disclosed that the N14.46 billion jewellery and other properties recovered from a former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Allison Madueke during the former President Goodluck Jonathan administration are still with the commission.

He disclosed this Friday when he appeared before the House of Representatives Adhoc Committee investigating the status of recovered loot, movable and immovable properties from 2002 to 2020.

He said the jewellery, valued at N14.60 billion and other property, estimated at over $80 million, had not been auctioned.

“They are in our custody. They have been finally forfeited. The commission is looking forward to the presidential committee to auction all these items and deposit the money appropriately.

“We got the forfeiture order sometimes in 2019. A lot of processes and events hinder us to proceed with the auction as you are aware sir. We couldn’t move on with some of these things because of certain things that happened,” he said.

The committee raised concern over the possible deterioration in the value of recovered assets, which recovery agencies are holding in their custodies.

Responding, the EFCC chairman said some legal and administrative bottlenecks were the main reasons hindering disposal of recovered assets.

Asked about how the EFCC disposes non cash assets, he replied that there were laid down rules for the disposal of recovered assets, which he said were being followed.

After the submissions of the EFCC chairman, the committee said they were satisfied with various explanations about the operations and status of seized assets.