How the British government rejects request to repatriate ex-Minister of Petroleum

The head of the National Central Bureau (NCB) INTERPOL, Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIG), Garba Baba Umar, announced on Thursday that the United Kingdom (UK) government has withdrawn their request for former Petroleum Resources Minister, Mrs. Deziani Alison-Madueke.

Mr Umar made this known during the investigative hearing commissioned by the House of Representatives Ad Hoc Committee investigating the illegal sale of Nigeria’s crude oil exports from 2014 to the present, as well as the illegal sale of 48 million barrels of Nigeria’s Bonny Light crude oil in China in 2015 estimated at $2.4 billion, chaired by Hon. Mark Gbillah said all Mutual Legal Assistance (MLA) processes were followed, but the government refused.

Earlier, AIG Umar said his efforts to prosecute the former head of the pension funds, Abdulrasheed Maina, and the former Attorney General of the Federation, Mohammed Adoke, paid off.

“The NCB handles the head of all correspondence regarding requests for assistance that come to my table. They write me EFCC, NIS and all other agencies asking me to help them. All I have to do, as the chairman said, is go through the papers, go through the documents that have been presented to me.

“You can’t put someone on a watch list or red alert, normally I would have done it but I can’t do that because they have to show me evidence and we have to help from the other person. It is normal procedure, Mr. Chairman.

“I am not aware of the investigation, nor am I aware of what the Justice Department or the court is doing. I only know that I receive a request, and in the normal process, Mr Chairman and honorable members of this committee, it is my duty, it is my responsibility to check before I act.

“If you ask INTERPOL the national headquarters, the IGP we invest in? As I said, INTERPOL does not investigate, but NCB does because NCB is the local police. As I told you, they are like catalysts between law enforcement and INTERPOL.

“Regarding aid, Mr Chairman, looking for help, just like what happened if you recall, we repatriated many Nigerians who allegedly defrauded the Nigerian government.

“I personally went and brought Maina from Niger. I have brought the former Attorney General of the Federation from Dubai and many other Nigerians who have gone into hiding; we brought them back to be tried and those who were hiding in Nigeria we took them back to their different countries to be tried.

In response to Ngaji’s request not to say anything about taking Deziani as she was one of the people arrested by the Nigerian government and whether DPP could write a letter to you without the permission of the Minister of Justice and who the takes responsibility,
Umar said the British government refused to cooperate with Madueke.

“Sir, every letter, if you see the header of the letter, if you check the letter, it is signed for the Honorable Minister of Justice and let me tell you that he needs to know briefly.

“The issue of Diezani, an arrest warrant has been issued. I am sorry to say that the UK Government has rejected our request. We followed MLA. You can check if it’s mutual legal assistance to take her back home. According to them, she went to court because they have a system where they control us, don’t let me go there,” he said.

At the hearing, Hon. Gbillah expressed serious concern about the rationale behind the invitation of whistleblowers (star witnesses) for questioning shortly before the investigation began, who was labeled a ‘fugitive’ and declared wanted by police.

“That commission allegedly traveled to China at the urging of a whistleblower with Mexican citizenship about the existence in China of millions of barrels of crude oil from Nigeria and this individual expressed an interest in purchasing this crude, which the government at the time reportedly needed to to investigate first.

“So this commission went to China, confirmed the existence of this crude oil, but this concerned person claims that when the sales process of this crude oil started, they were not contacted again and they have evidence of the fact that the crude oil was sold without the money being transferred to the treasury of the Nigerian government.

When these problems started to arise, they said they were harassed and threatened and that false allegations were made against them which meant that they were taken to court on this matter, and eventually the case was dropped.

And from their point of view, they said, because when they had the disclosures of the details of the documents, text exchanges emerged between them and the parties involved did not want it to become public knowledge.

“Now fast forward to now, because that case had stalled. It may interest you that when these allegations apparently happened, the branch sent to the police to investigate was the Force CID, then under the DIG Michael Ogbizi now retired.

“The report would have been created and forwarded for action by the Attorney General. But it will also be something that we would like to understand why, if it pertains to that issue now, why the Interpol is writing to some of these individuals.

“Of course the Mexican left the country and he is back in his country, and I was supposed to see the Mexican ambassador today because the committee members were going to Mexico.

“The House of Representatives is that detailed. To meet this person, we would not want the citizen of another country to be oppressed the way we would not want a Nigerian in Mexico to be oppressed if they tell the truth.

“We would also like to have the documents and facts available to him. They said they have recordings, photographs, some of which they have shown to the committee, email correspondence, text messages and many related documents related to this matter. But the Nigerians involved are still in the country.

“Two of them were the ones who approached us and were willing to give details of what happened in this whole situation, but because you weren’t involved in that initial investigation.

“I want to ask you how come you write letters to these persons after the investigation of the committee had begun and after they had indicated that they wanted to testify before this committee?”

In his response, Mr. Umar, who denied the allegations, that the Agency did not investigate anyone.

He said: “This is to inform the committee that INTERPOL is not investigating a new case. The federation’s Attorney General’s Office is only seeking INTERPOL help by using INTERPOL tools to apprehend the fugitive who has since flown out of the country to escape justice.

“It is our kind advice that all inquiries in this case can be directed to the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation and the competent court hearing the case.

“It will be detrimental to the Nigeria Police to disclose or deal with a pending case in a competent court.

“However, the Nigeria Police stand ready to assist the National Assembly in their oversight function.

“Enclosed are copies of the letter from the Attorney General of the Federation, the Indictment Form, the Summary of the Prosecutor’s Case against the Defendants, the Hearing Notice and the Federal Supreme Court’s Detention Order.

“I have no knowledge. I’m not interested. There is a request from a competent ministry to trace these persons. And they added a court order. I will never allow anyone to use me. It’s a request. Those who may be able to answer are those who investigated the case and the Attorney General’s office. But I assure you we are not investigating. We assist.”

To that end, Hon. Gbillah instructed the clerk to write a letter to the “Director of the Public Prosecutor’s Office of the Federation and the Attorney General of the Federation to provide this committee with a detailed report of the investigation into the charges against these persons, such as it was done by DIG Michael Ogbizi or another police department.

“I also want a certified copy of the letter from the DPP to the Inspector General of Police to conduct that first instance investigation and the reasons why that investigation was conducted.

“I also want to get the certified copy of the case filed by the Director of Public Prosecutions against these persons in a competent court in Nigeria.

“We will not allow anyone with any information before this committee to be intimidated, coerced or harassed by the police.

“These people are not in hiding. They were not contacted until after the committee had started its investigation. The person who is in Mexico has business to do in Mexico. There was no flight advice. We are not abusers of the law. We would expect that you would also be interested in establishing the fact. We want everyone to be free to provide evidence,” he said.