Family members of a former Nigerian Petroleum Minister,
Diezani Alison-Madueke, have dismissed reports that she is dead.
SaharaReporters rang a close family friend of the Maduekes
in Lagos, but the source denied reports of the former minister’s death. “I am
going to a crucial meeting with [retired Rear Admiral] Alison Amaechina
Madueke, and I can tell you the former minister is not dead.”
Also, her Lagos- based lawyer, Oscar Onwudiwe who had
earlier told Saharareporters that a family meeting was going on about her later
called to say she is alive.
Mrs. Alison-Madueke has been in the UK receiving treatment
for cancer since former President Goodluck Jonathan left office in May 2015. In
October she was arrested by agents of the National Crime Agency in the UK
accused of money laundering.
SaharaReporters was first to report exclusively that Mrs.
Alison-Madueke, a graduate of architecture at Washington, DC-based Howard
University, was stricken with cancer. She had denied our report, only for her
family lawyer, Oscar Onwudiwe, to admit two months ago that she was being
treated for cancer.
Mrs. Alison-Madueke hailed from Bayelsa State and worked for
Shell Petroleum prior to her appointment to the cabinet of former President
Umaru Yar’Adua. At Mr. Yar’Adua’s death in 2010, President Jonathan appointed
Mrs. Alison-Madueke to the Petroleum Ministry. She was widely regarded as the
most powerful member of Mr. Jonathan’s cabinet.
Her tenure was marked by numerous questionable deals,
including controversies over billions of dollars of oil revenues that were
reportedly not deposited with the Central Bank of Nigeria.
In recent interviews with a Nigerian publisher, Dele Momodu,
the former Petroleum Minister denied ever stealing Nigeria’s funds.
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