BY Ebunoluwa Olafusi
A federal high court in Abuja has threatened to strike out fraud charges brought against Diezani Alison-Madueke, former minister of petroleum resources, by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
Ijeoma Ojukwu, the judge, issued the threat on Tuesday at the mention of the case by Farouk Abdallah, the prosecution lawyer, over the continued absence of the accused.
Abdallah said the federal government was having challenges effecting the former minister’s extradition.
He said it was necessary to keep the case alive for the extradition process to be successful.
Alison-Madueke is facing charges of money laundering.
She left the country for the UK shortly before the inception of the Buhari administration.
In 2017, a federal high court in Lagos ordered the forfeiture of N7.6 billion allegedly linked to her to the federal government.
In November 2018, the EFCC started a process to extradite the former minister, and in the next month, the international police issued a warrant for her arrest following a request by the government.
Alison-Madueke is also being investigated in the UK for alleged financial impropriety.
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