A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Wahab Shittu, has blamed the difficult legal procedures involved in extradition for the inability of the Nigerian government to properly prosecute former Minister of Petroleum, Diezani Alison-Madueke, for over eight years.
Alison-Madueke is alleged to have looted millions of dollars belonging to Nigeria when she served as a minister under former President Goodluck Jonathan.
She has been away in the United Kingdom since the end of Jonathan’s administration and has been unable to appear before Nigerian courts where cases have been instituted against her by the government.
Shittu, who was a guest on a live television programme on Friday, said that the difficult procedures involved in extraditing someone from another country are the reason the former minister is yet to be tried adequately.
“You know the extradition procedures of getting somebody who has taken flight from one country to another country involves some legal compliance procedures that must be satisfied before somebody can be brought or extradited from another country to Nigeria.
“There are judicial procedures, there are also some administrative international procedures that must be complied with.
“I think efforts are being made by successive Nigerian governments, particularly this administration to ensure that those who have fled the country particularly Diezani are extradited back to the country to face their trials.
“That difficulty is because you have legal and extra-legal hurdles to surmount if this is to be achieved,” Shittu said.
The Nigerian government on Friday received $52.88m recovered from Galactica assets, linked to Diezani Alison-Madueke from the USA.
The Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice Lateef Fagbemi disclosed this at the formal signing ceremony of the asset agreement between Nigeria and the United States of America in Abuja on Friday.
Fagbemi explained that $50m of the recovered assets will be deployed through the World Bank for the rural electrification project and the remaining $2m will be deployed to the International Institute of Justice to expand the Justice system and also counter corruption.
