Nigeria’s former
Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke has no
reputation to protect, as the married woman has a notorious reputation
and a penchant for adulterous affairs, a lawsuit claims.
The suit, filed at the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory in
Abuja by Moremi Publishing House Limited, publishers of Osun Defender,
asserts that Alison-Madueke’s illicit affairs outside her marriage have
been undertaken using the nation’s wealth upon which she sat as Minister
of Petroleum.
The suit is a response toa libel suit filed by Alison-Madueke filed in june 2015
The defendants insist in their statement of defence that there
is a treasure trove of documentation in the nation’s press as well as in
various public investigations which include the reports of the audit
firms KPMG and PriceWaterHouse Coopers on the Nigeria National Petroleum
(NNPC), as well as that of the House of Representatives on the
activities of Alison-Madueke.
Maintaining that they are “responsible corporate citizens of
Nigeria with high ethical and professional standing” who would libel no
one, the plaintiff inclusive, the defendants declared that they only
publish “credible and verifiable” stories.
They cited a wide variety of published stories in different
media outside of themselves which reflect a wide variety of corruption
and collusion on the part of Alison-Madueke during her tenure as
Minister.
Among others, the defendants asserted that under the
Plaintiff’s watch as Minister for Petroleum Resources, 445,000 barrels
of crude oil were stolen on a daily basis for about four years with no
effort by Alison-Madueke to identify, initiate arrest or prosecute the
criminals who were responsible for that huge theft and depletion of
national wealth.
“The allegation of daily theft of crude oil was asserted by
former President Goodluck Jonathan, Vice President Namadi Sambo and
Minister for Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala on several occasions and which
facts were never contradicted nor debunked by the Plaintiff and which
led to the award of bogus contracts of pipeline monitoring and
protection to rag-tag security formations of ex-militants and ethnic
militias by the government under which the Plaintiff served as
Minister,” they said.
They also recalled the House of Representatives’ investigation of
Alison-Madueke for squandering about N10 billion of tax payers’ money on
charter and maintenance of a Challenger 850 aircraft for unofficial use
as was widely reported in the mass media.
“The Defendants aver that, at the trial of this suit, they shall rely
on opinions of average Nigerians about the Plaintiff to buttress the
fact that the Plaintiff has no reputation to protect save in the coterie
of her corrupt associates,” for which they underlined they will rely on
various publications to prove their point.
Text of the statement of claim:
In the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory
In the Abuja Judicial Division
Holden at Abuja
Suit No: FCT/HC/CV/1712/2015
Between
Mrs. Diezani Alison Madueke …Plaintiff
And
Moremi Publishing House Ltd. …1st Defendant
Kola Olabisi …2nd Defendant
Statement of Defence
Save and except as is hereinafter expressly admitted, the Defendants
deny each and every allegation of facts contained in the Statement of
Claim as if same were herein set out and denied seriatim.
1. The 1st Defendant admits paragraph 1 of the Statement of Claim to
the extent that the Plaintiff was at the relevant time of filing this
action the Minister for Petroleum Resources of the Federal Republic of
Nigeria.
2. The Defendants admit paragraphs 2 and 3 of the Statement of Claim
but deny that the said publications were defamatory of the Plaintiff
contrary to the allegation in paragraph 4 of the Statement of Claim as
the statements made in the publications are true.
3. Contrary to paragraphs 9 and 10 of the Statement of Claim, the Defendants say that:
3.1. no independent investigation has been conducted by anybody,
whether the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria or
PriceWaterhouseCoopers, that exonerated the Plaintiff contrary to the
Plaintiff’s contention;
3.2. rather, PriceWaterhouseCoopers (hereinafter referred to as
PWC) in its audit report on the accounts of Nigerian National Petroleum
Corporation (NNPC), a corporation under the Ministry of Petroleum
Resources presided over by the Plaintiff between April 2010 and May
2015, indicates that
a. the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC) and the Central
Bank of Nigeria (CBN) refused to open their financial statement to PWC
and hence the latter could not have access to NPDC’s full accounts and
records;
b. no supporting documents were provided by the NPDC for the $0.25
billion claimed by the NPDC as Nigerian Port Authority charges;
c. a sum totaling $10,257,161.07 could not be substantiated due to
insufficient documents which ought to be provided by the NPDC;
d. a total of $59,324,737.01 ($59.3) Million on Charter Hire
Services could not be substantiated due to lack of supporting documents
which ought to be provided by the NPDC;
e. out of the $17,767,683.54 claimed as payments for manning and
management fee of MT Tuma and MT Oloibiri, the sum of $6,658,588.74
could not be ascertained due to lack of supporting documents which ought
to be supplied by NPDC;
f. the total claim of $5,457,006.98 out of the total claim
$46,265,215.13 could not be substantiated due to lack of supporting
documents. NNPC claimed the sum of $46,265,215.13 as crude transport
payments during the review period, (which fell in between the
Plaintiff’s service as Minister for Petroleum Resources) which was
incurred on crude oil transportation from Escravos terminals to Warri
refinery jetty using marine vessels;
g. the sum of $6,707,826.05 could not be substantiated due to lack
of supporting documents. This forms part of the expenses allegedly
incurred on marine throughput by the NNPC under the management of the
Plaintiff;
h. on capital expenditure, the sum of $24,179,005.48 could not be
substantiated due to insufficient supporting documents which were
supposed to be provided by NPDC and NNPC under the Ministry of the
Plaintiff;
i. no amount whatsoever was substantiated for the total claim on
Pipeline Vandalism and Repair Cost of $11,896,654.71 and on Management
Charge out Rate claim of $59,712,530.83 as no supporting documents were
provided for the costs;
j. while there were documentary evidence that the President of the
Federal Republic of Nigeria had ordered that subsidy on DPK be stopped
and the Executive Secretary PPPRA to the CBN Governor confirmed that
PPPRA had ceased granting subsidy on Kerosene and no appropriation was
made in the nation’s budget in 2012 and 2013, NNPC, under the Ministry
of the Plaintiff claimed they spent $9.9 billion on kerosene without
budgetary allocation;
k. whereas the sale of kerosene has been deregulated and average
common man takes no benefit of the subsidy payments, yet the Plaintiff
supervised the payment of huge sums of money for payment of subsidy on a
deregulated product for more than two years in her ministry, the
amounts paid has never been recovered and the Plaintiff did not finger
any recipient of the funds for prosecution by the relevant agencies;
l. in January 2015, investigators discovered that the various NNPC
(55%) portion of Oil leases (OMLs) involved in the Shell Divestments
related to eight OMLs were transferred to NPDC for aggregate sum of
US$1.85 billion. So far, only the sum of US$100 million had been
remitted in relation to these assets and the sum of US$1.75 billion
remains unremitted while the Plaintiff presides over the affairs of the
Ministry of Petroleum Resources. In addition, the said assets were sold
for less their commercial value;
m. the total amount remitted from the sale of domestic crude amounted
to $14.5 billion which is just half the total amount of $28,215,731,691
claimed by NNPC to have accrued from the total revenue generated from
domestic crude sales;
n. rather than allowing the House of Representatives Committee to
complete its investigation, the Plaintiff went to court and obtained an
order preventing the Committee from proceeding on its investigation and
the said suit is still pending till the time of filing this defence.
4. The Defendants say that, further to and in clarification of
paragraph 3 above, the NNPC is a wholly-owned outfit of the Federal
Government of Nigeria (FGN) which operates through its subsidiary, NPDC,
in direct petroleum exploration and production operations and the
affairs of all these bodies were superintended over by the Plaintiff as
the Minister for Petroleum Resources. For paragraph 3 above, the
Defendants shall rely on the PWC Audit Report as reported in an on-line
tabloid, Nigeria News Headline Today on Tuesday, April 28, 2015 at
http://www.newsheadlines.com.ng/latest-
news/2015/04/28/highlights-pwc-audit-of-nnpc-accounts/ and accessed on
6/5/15 at 8:19 pm. Notice is hereby issued to the Plaintiff to produce
the original of the report of PWC which is in her possession at the
trial of this suit.
5. A report in The Guardian online edition on May 14 2014 confirmed
that “PWC audit report confirms that $18.5 bn was diverted from NNPC
account”. The Defendants shall rely on this report accessed at
http://www.ngrguardiannews.com/2015/05/pwc-audit-report-confirms-18-5bn-was-diverted-from-nnpc-account-says-sanusi
on Friday 5 June 2015.
6. The Defendants further aver that under the Plaintiff’s watch as
Minister for Petroleum Resources, 445,000 barrels of crude oil were
stolen on a daily basis for about four years without efforts by the
Plaintiff to identify, initiate arrest or prosecute the criminals who
were responsible for this huge theft and depletion of national wealth.
The allegation of daily theft of crude oil was asserted by former
President Goodluck Jonathan, Vice President Namadi Sambo and Minister
for Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala on several occasions and which facts
were never contradicted nor debunked by the Plaintiff and which led to
the award of bogus contracts of pipeline monitoring and protection to
rag-tag security formations of ex-militants and ethnic militias by the
government under which the Plaintiff served as Minister.
7. The Defendants aver that, contrary to paragraphs 11 and 12 of the
Statement of Claim, the statements contained in the said publications
are true and the Plaintiff has no such reputation that can be damaged as
the accounts of the Plaintiff’s stewardships in the Ministry of
Transportation, Ministry of Mines and Steel Development and, later,
Ministry of Petroleum Resources, are a catalogue of unscrupulous and
indecent practices characterized by profligacy, self-aggrandisement,
serial scandals and wanton embezzlement.
8. The Defendants shall, in justification, rely on the House of
Representatives’ investigation of the Plaintiff for squandering about 10
billion Naira of tax payers’ money on charter and maintenance of a
Challenger 850 aircraft for unofficial use as reported by
i. Newswatch Times of May 9, 2014 in a report titled “Reps
Probe Diezani’s N10bn Aircraft, Jonathan Media Chat” at
http://www.mynewswatchtimesng.com/reps-probe-diezanis-10bn-aircraft and
accessed on 6/18/15 at 2:21 pm;
ii. Premium Times report titled “House of Reps orders probe of
Alison-Madueke for allegedly spending N10 billion on private jet”
reported at
http://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/157135-house-reps-orders-probe-of-alison-madueke-for
-allegedly-spending-n10billion-on-private-jet/ accessed on 6/18/15 at
2:26 pm;
iii. Punch newspapers online report of March 27 2014 titled
“Diezani’s jet scandal: Reps panel under pressure, uncovers third
aircraft” reported at
http://www.punchng.com/news/diezanis-jet-scandal-reps-panel-under-pressure-uncovers-third-aircraft/
accessed on 6/18/15 at 2:28 pm; and
iv. Encomium Magazine online report titled “Inside Diezani
Alison Madueke’s N5.1 billion Bombardier Challenger jet” reported at
http://encomium.ng/inside-diezani-alison-maduekes-n5-1-billion-bombardier-challenger-jet/
accessed on 6/18/15 at 4:38 pm.
9. The Defendants further aver that the Plaintiff has been a subject
of several reports of shady deals and dirty transactions relating to
sale of oil blocks belonging to the Federation. The Defendants shall
rely on
a. online reports of The Icon titled “Shady allocation of oil
blocks: Alison-Madueke has a case to answer” reported at
http://www/theiconng.com/shady-allocation-of-oil-blocks-alison-madueke-has-a-case-to-answer/
and accessed on 6/5/15 at 7:29 pm which transaction the House of
Representatives of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is still
investigating as at present;
b. Punch newspapers online report of 06 March 2015 titled
“Petroleum minister summoned over sale of oil blocks” reported at
http://www.news24.com.ng/National/News/Petroleum-minister-summoned-over-sale-of-oil-blocks-20150306.
10. The Defendants further state that the Plaintiff, a married
woman, is a personage of notorious reputation and penchant for illicit
affairs which have been sustained by the nation’s oil wealth. The
Defendants shall rely on the following publications to this effect:
a. an online blog, called Amazing Stories Around the World,
published on Sunday 8 December 2013 a report titled “Kola Aluko’s
Romance with Diezani, Omokore Exposed” which detailed the lavish
lifestyle of one Kola Aluko who, according to reports, abandoned the
Plaintiff after a sizzling romantic relationship and opted for the
British model, Naomi Campbell. The said report is on
http://amazingstoriesaroundtheworld.blogspot.com/2013/12/kola-alukos-romance-with-diezani.html
and accessed on 6/5/15 at 8:49 pm;
b. a November 24, 2013 online report titled “The Dirty Secret
Between Kola Aluko and Petroleum Minister, Allison Madueke Exposed”
published by abusidiqu.com which details how the relationship between
the Plaintiff and the said Kola Aluko went sour the latter having
escaped with billions of dollars which were profits made from illegal
oil deals involving the Plaintiff. The said story is on
http://abusidiqu.com/dirty-secret-kola-aluko-petroleum-minister-allison-madueke-exposed/
accessed on June 6, 2015 at 12:28 pm;
c. a Wednesday November 13, 2013 online report published by
NewsRescue titled “Diezani’s Hustler, Kola Aluko, his Super Yatch, Naomi
Campbell and His $Billions Wealth Status” which details the expansive
wealth of the said Kola Aluko and how same was made from the
relationship with the Plaintiff. The said report is at
http://newsrescue.com/diezanis-hustler-kola-aluko-super-yatch-naomi-campbell-billions-wealth-status/
accessed on 6/5/15 at 8:51 pm;
d. a report by Sahara Reporters on August 19, 2013 titled
“Petroleum Minister, Diezani Allison-Madueke, Accused of Blowing N2
Billion on Private Jets” detailing how the Plaintiff had been wasting
Nigeria’s resources in mind-boggling and satanic splendor published at
http://saharareporters.com/2013/08/19/petroleum-minister-diezani-allison-madueke-accused-blowing-n2-billion-private-jets
accessed on 6/5/15 at 7:17 pm;
e. a May 26, 2015 online report published by The Icon titled
“N1bn Libel Suit: Allison-Madueke and agents evading service” in which
the Plaintiff was alleged to be evading service of court process in Suit
No. CV/1679/15 at the FCT High Court for libel and unauthorized use of
the name of one Simon Imobo-Tswan and his platform, Network of
Progressive Activists as well as his GSM number to launder the
Plaintiff’s image in the media via news-stories and advertorial which
report was accessed at
http://www.theiconng.com/n1bn-libel-suit-alison-madueke-and-agents-evading-service/.
11. The Defendants aver that, at the trial of this suit, they
shall rely on opinions of average Nigerians about the Plaintiff to
buttress the fact that the Plaintiff has no reputation to protect save
in the coterie of her corrupt associates and shall rely on the following
publications:
a. an article published online by Sahara Reporters on April
19, 2015 titled “Ten Reasons Why Diezani Alison-Madueke Must Go To
Prison” by Churchill Okonkwo and accessed at
http://secure.saharareporters.com/2015/04/19/ten-reasons-why-diezani-alison-madueke-must-go-prison-churchill-okonkwo
on 6/5/15 at 7:59 pm;
b. an article published online by Premium Times on April 28,
2015 titled “Why the Federal Government Should Prosecute Mrs. Diezani
Alison-Madueke” by Femi Akinfolarin and accessed at
http://blogs.premiumtimesng.com on 6/5/15 at 7:55 pm;
c. the publication by Sahara Reporters of January 27, 2014
titled “Anti-Corruption Coalition Wants Nigeria’s Petroleum Minister,
Alison-Madueke, Removed As Alternate President of OPEC”, a report of a
petition by Civil Society Network Against Corruption which detailed a
number of corrupt practices of the Plaintiff as the Minister for
Transportation, Minister of Mines and Steel Development, and later,
Minister for Petroleum Resources, all between 2007 - 2015. The said
publication is on
http://saharareporters.com/2014/01/27/anti-corruption-coalition-wants-nigeria%E2%80%99s-petroleum-minister-alison-madueke-removed
and accessed on 6/24/15 at 11.43 am;
d. the KPMG report on the sleaze that characterized the
Plaintiff’s stewardship in the Ministry of Petroleum Resources which
report described NNPC as a “House of Fraud” but was brought to public
attention by Premium Times of February 1, 2012 in a write-up titled
“KPMG report: 20 Nigerians EFCC should interrogate” - accessed at
http://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/3636-kpmg-report-20-nigeriana-efcc-should-interrogate.html
on 6/24/15 at 11:58 am. The Plaintiff is hereby given notice to produce
the report of KPMG which was submitted to her but was covered up for a
long time until unearthed by Premium Times;
e. the editorial opinion of Punch Newspapers published online
on April 1, 2014 titled “Mr President, Alison-Madueke’s cup is full” at
http://www.punchng.com/editorials/mr-president-alison-madueke’s-cup-is-full
and accessed on 6/24/15 at 12:54 pm.
12. The Defendants maintain that they are responsible corporate
citizens of Nigeria with high ethical and professional standing and
shall not libel anybody, the Plaintiff inclusive, but only publish real,
credible and verifiable stories.
13. The Defendants shall rely on the defence of justification in this case as the Plaintiff has no reputation to protect.
14. The Defendants shall also rely on the defence of qualified
privilege at the trial of this suit as it is part of their duties to
inform the public.
15. Whereof the Defendants pray for the dismissal of the
Claimant’s action with punitive and substantial costs as the said action
is frivolous, vexatious and completely lacking in merit.
Dated this day of June, 2015
__________________
ü R. A. O. Adegoke,
Dare Oketade,
M. A. Banire & Associates,
Defendants’ Counsel,
c/o Olujinmi & Akeredolu & Co.,
5th Floor, NICON Plaza,
Muhammadu Buhari Way,
Central Area, Abuja.
+234-802-449-6925
info@mabandassociates.com
For Service On:
The Plaintiff,
c/o her counsel,
Dr. Chike Amobi,
Chike Amobi & Co.,
Ambassador Albert I Osakwe House,
1473, Inner Block Road, Suit 203,
Central Business District,
Abuja.