The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has confiscated $40 million worth of jewelry and a customised gold iPhone belonging to former Nigerian petroleum minister Diezani Alison-Madueke.
The country’s anti-graft agency said on Friday in a statement that the items including hundreds of bangles, rings, earrings, necklaces and watches were found at a property owned by Alison-Madueke.
The seizure comes after a Nigerian high court ordered a search in her house following an ex parte application filed by EFCC.
The antigraft agency believes the luxury items were acquired with proceeds from ''unlawful activities''.
Alison-Madueke, who ran the petroleum ministry from 2011 to 2015, was charged by the EFCC in absentia with money laundering in 2017.
Her whereabouts are unknown, and a London-based lawyer who has represented her did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The order gives the EFCC 14 days to print the charges in any national newspaper and allow for her or “anyone interested in the items” to show why they should not be permanently forfeited to the federal government.
In 2017, a court allowed the government to permanently seize a $37.5 million apartment block she owned in an upscale Lagos neighbourhood.
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