Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has said the pieces of jewellery seized from a former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke, have been valued at about N14.460 bn.
This was disclosed by the Chairman of the EFCC, AbdulRasheed Bawa, to the House of Representatives on Friday.
He revealed the ‘estimated value’ of the forfeited pieces of jewellery to an ad hoc committee of the House probing the status of recovered loot at an investigative hearing.
Members of the committee and the audience at the venue were shocked by the revelation.
The EFCC boss also told the lawmakers that the houses finally forfeited by the Ex-minister have been valued at about $80 million.
The anti-graft chairman said that Diezani’s pieces of jewellery are still in the custody of the agency, adding that it had not been auctioned but had been finally forfeited to the Federal Government.
He said that court processes, procedures and administrative exigencies had stalled some of the seized assets to be auctioned by the anti-graft agency.
Bawa however said that the agency would henceforth deal with the seized assets case by case at the courts in order to quickly disposed of the assets.
“Already the Federal Government has set up a committee under the chairmanship of the Solicitor-General for the Federation and I think they are working tirelessly.
“We have EFCC representatives from that committee and we believe at the end of the day Nigerians are going to appreciate what that committee will come out with in term of the mandate given to them.”