Court Allows Diezani Alison-Madueke to Present UK Acquittal in Bid to Recover Seized Assets

Federal High Court grants leave to file fresh evidence after Southwark Crown Court discharged ex-minister of UK bribery charges_

The Federal High Court in Abuja has granted former Minister of Petroleum, Diezani Alison-Madueke, permission to present evidence of her acquittal by a United Kingdom court in her ongoing suit to reclaim forfeited assets.

Justice Inyang Ekwo ruled on Thursday 2 2026, after Diezani’s lawyer, Godwin Iyinbor, moved a motion on notice seeking to file a supplementary affidavit. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, did not oppose the application

The News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, reports that the Southwark Crown Court in London discharged and acquitted Diezani on June 17, 2026, of criminal allegations of bribery brought against her in the UK.

Diezani is now seeking to rely on that development in a Nigerian case where she is challenging the EFCC’s public notice for the auction of properties and personal effects linked to her

Iyinbor told the court that the motion, filed on June 25, sought leave to file a further/supplementary affidavit to bring the UK acquittal before the court. He also asked for an order deeming the affidavit properly filed.

EFCC counsel, Mofesomo Oyetibo, SAN, said he had been served with the application. He argued that the motion was intended to waste judicial time and was only meant to bring the UK outcome to the judge’s attention. When Justice Ekwo asked if the EFCC would oppose it, Oyetibo said they were not objecting.

The judge granted the motion as prayed and adjourned the matter to Oct. 6, 2026, for hearing. He said the preliminary objection and the substantive suit would be taken together on that date

FHC/ABJ/CS/21/2023 with the EFCC as the sole respondent. She is asking the court, among other things, to set aside the EFCC’s public notice for the auction/sale of properties and personal effects that affect her proprietary rights.

In a 10-ground argument filed by Prof. Mike Ozekhome, SAN, Diezani’s legal team said the EFCC sought “to visit the applicant with grave proprietary consequences without conviction, without fair hearing, and without strict compliance with the relevant statutory provisions regulating forfeiture, management and disposal of properties.”

Ozekhome said a “subsequent and material event” occurred while the case was pending: Diezani’s acquittal by the Southwark Crown Court on June 17, 2026, of bribery allegations.

“The said subsequent development is material and relevant to the applicant’s case, particularly as it relates to the issues of absence of conviction, fair hearing, due process, propriety of irreversible proprietary deprivation, and the need for strict compliance with statutory safeguards before disposal of properties affecting the applicant’s proprietary rights,” he stated.

The senior lawyer stressed that Diezani was not asking the Nigerian court to sit on appeal over the UK decision or treat it as automatically conclusive of the Nigerian proceedings. Instead, he said, it was to place a fresh material fact before the court to aid substantial justice.

He added that the fact was not available when she filed her earlier processes and could not have been pleaded or deposed to earlier. He submitted that the court has the power and discretion to allow the filing where such facts assist in the just determination of the issues

Oyetibo told the court the application was aimed at bringing the UK outcome to the judge’s attention. He described it as an attempt to waste judicial time, but confirmed the commission was not opposing it.

The matter returns on Oct. 6, 2026. On that date, the court will hear both the EFCC’s preliminary objection and the substantive suit together.

The central issue is whether the EFCC complied with due process and statutory requirements before moving to forfeit and auction assets allegedly linked to Diezani, and whether the absence of a conviction affects that process

Diezani served as Minister of Petroleum Resources under former President Goodluck Jonathan. The EFCC has, in separate proceedings over the years, sought the forfeiture of assets it alleges are proceeds of crime linked to her. Diezani has consistently denied wrongdoing

The UK case related to allegations of bribery. Her discharge and acquittal in London do not automatically determine the Nigerian forfeiture proceedings, but her legal team says it is relevant to questions of conviction, fair hearing, and due process