Tinubu's Government Contacts The UK To Request Diezani's Extradition Over A $2.5 Billion Swindle

Diezani Allison-Madueke, 

Nigeria's Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), has requested the urgent extradition of Diezani Allison-Madueke, a former minister of petroleum, and has served the Crown Prosecution Services of the United Kingdom with an arrest warrant.

The request was made on President Bola Tinubu's directives and came after the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had earlier in October submitted a formal written request to the Attorney General's office.

According to a senior official in the Federal Government, the office of the Attorney General (AGF) referenced several legal documents when requesting extradition, including Section 2 (2) of the Nigerian Extradition Act, CAP E25, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004, and the London Scheme of Extradition within the Commonwealth, also referred to as "The Scheme," a multilateral treaty that regulates extradition between Nigeria and the United Kingdom.

"The EFCC established a prima facie case against Allison-Madueke in a letter to the office of the AGF, after which a magistrate was ordered to issue a warrant of arrest. The certified true copy of the warrant of arrest was then attached to the extradition request written to the UK government by the AGF on the orders of the President."

However, it was also disclosed that an ongoing internal examination of the request by UK authorities was the reason behind the delay in the extradition of Allison-Madueke from the UK to Nigeria.

"It is true that the AGF has submitted a warrant of arrest and written to the UK government for Diezani's extradition to Nigeria, but extradition processes are usually cumbersome as it is subject to the approval of the recipient country. Nigeria has made its request, but the UK has to subject it to their laws, and other international institutional bottlenecks that are in place in the UK," another source said.

"So, it is the UK that'll determine how fast Diezani will be returned to Nigeria," he added.