The Federal High Court Sitting in Lagos has ordered the final forfeiture of the sum of N7,646,700,000 allegedly hidden in a bank by a former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, to the Federal Government.

The court had on August 9, 2017, ordered the interim forfeiture of the sum said to have been illegally kept in Sterling Bank Plc.

More popular by her first name, Diezani had been in the thick of many controversies over looted funds during the Goodluck Jonathan administration.  Still in self-exile, she has been the subject of multiple alleged scams including buying a mansion in Banana Island, Ikoyi Lagos with $37m in cash payment, an act many Nigerians have described as barbaric and obscene.

The order granted by the vacation judge, Justice Chuka Obiozor, followed an ex parte application brought and argued before him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

The EFCC also alleged that Mrs Alison-Madueke stashed the money in three banks, and the Federal Government had since February last year, through an order granted by another judge, Justice Muslim Hassan also of the Federal High Court, recovered part of the money from the other banks.