The government of Switzerland has confirmed that it had received a request for “mutual assistance” from the Nigerian government in connection with controversial oil tycoon and businessman, Mr. Kolawole Aluko and firms linked to him, reports Reuters.
Aluko is a business ally of the immediate past Petroleum Minister, Mrs. Deziani Alison-Madueke, who was arrested in London last Friday by the UK’s National Crime Agency on allegations of bribery and money laundering.
The request followed series of investigations of cronies of Alison-Madueke both in Nigeria and offshore. The UK police in collaboration with the EFCC have mounted worldwide inquest into the activities of the former minister who was said to have ran the NNPC like a personal estate. Competent sources within the oil and gas sector said she was unbearably flamboyant and operated as though she owned the Petroleum Ministry and all the agencies under the ministry.
“Upon her appointment as minister, she compelled chief executives of oil and gas companies in Nigeria to send her congratulatory messages which were published in newspapers. This was a pointer to her style of leadership and she did not disappoint as she lived in extreme luxury unbecoming of a public office holder.
“She did not withhold any comfort from herself, she jetted all over the world in leased aircraft, was a frequent face at the best clothiers in the world and loved jewelry to no end. Though a woman with a likeable disposition, she was feared by men and those who worked with her”, said a major player in the oil and gas sector.
Aluko was one of the early business partners of Alison-Madueke until both of them fell apart last year over some deals which terms were said to have been skewed against Aluko. The flamboyant Nigerian businessman who obtained Swiss residency was said to have been a life of luxury all around the world while maintaining his residency in Switzerland.
The international news agency Reuters said Tuesday that the Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland confirmed the development in response to its query on the matter.
Aluko co-chairs Seven Energy and Atlantic Energy with billionaire Jide Omokore, whose Lagos residence and office was raided by officials of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) same Friday the former minister was briefly detained. Omokore was invited by the EFCC, quizzed and allowed to go but his travel documents have been confiscated by the anti-graft commission.
Seven Energy and Atlantic Energy entered into a controversial “strategic partnership agreements” worth about $6.6 billion with the NPDC, a subsidiary of the NNPC, without any competitive tender processes and were awarded five lucrative blocks to farm on behalf of the NPDC. The firms have been accused of several infringements, including non-payment of royalties and taxes to the state.
The investigation of Alison-Madueke and her cronies has exposed the sleazy deals hatched under the regime of Goodluck Jonathan who was said to have lost control of Alison-Madueke and her excesses while in office.
