Apparently, enraged by the carelessness of her co- conspirators, Gbenga Aluko and Jide Omokore, Nigeria’s former minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Dieziani Alison Madueke currently under investigation by a court in the United States for laundering millions of dollars belonging to the federal government has threatened to expose the gory details of their illicit transaction.
The former controversial oil minister, currently holed up in the United Kingdom where she is also being investigated for corrupt practices stated in a telephone conversation recorded by the US authorities she wouldn’t mind if such action will land all of them in prison.
The recorded conversations have now been filed as part of a civil complaint by the United States Department of Justice (DoJ) seeking the forfeiture of over $144 million slush fund allegedly looted by Dieziani, Aluko, and Omokore.
Details of the two different conversations with Aluko which Dieziani personally recorded on May 14, 2014, she admitted helping Aluko and Omokore secure the multi-billion dollars Strategic Alliance Agreements (SAAs) deals but was furious with the level of carelessness exhibited by the duo.
She said, “You and Jide [i.e., OMOKORE] had some of the most support that we could possibly give. At a time when we’re not doing anything else, we stuck our necks out regarding the SAA and we supported it. [INAUDIBLE] How the two of you have ruined it is incredulous and incredible to all of us.”
“I spoke to you several times about your general behaviour, acquisition of assets, etc., asking you to be a bit more careful because [INAUDIBLE] will start following you. I remember we had this open discussion more than once. You kept telling me that there was no issue because you did it in a certain way, you did it in a certain—and I kept telling you that it doesn’t matter how you do it.
“Once you start acquiring, acquiring, acquiring at a certain level, then you’ll be—whether you like it or not, whether it was done in the most transparent—you understand?— manner or not, because they will want to trace where it came from. This is an age of terrorism,
“If you want to hire a yacht, you lease it for two weeks or whatever. You don’t go and sink funds into it at this time when Nigerian oil and gas sector is under all kinds of watch, as we have been for some time, and where Atlantic [i.e., AEDC and/or AEBD] itself has been the subject of all kinds of speculation,” she said.
Ostensibly, it does appear that all was not well between Deziani, Aluko, and Omokore as the former oil minister in one of the recorded conversation while responding to speculations that Mr. Aluko was going to blackmail her, threatened to spill the beans.
“I said tell him [i.e., ALUKO] to bring everything out, and then you know what will happen? No problem, I will be happy to escort all of you to jail along with myself. I said, in fact, you’ll be shocked by what I will do. Because when it comes to that, I will come out and tell the Nigerian people this is what happened,” she said.
“Oh, yes, I will blame myself, but it [INAUDIBLE] place and everything. Anything they want to say, I am happy to go. But I will come out openly and say it so that they can judge me openly. And then all of us go and sit on the gate. Let us see who survived [INAUDIBLE], me or you,” she said.
Mrs. Alison-Madueke also acknowledged that the furniture she was given by the duo of Messrs Aluko and Omokore was not worth more than $4million.
The furniture they gave me didn’t come to more than four million dollars, altogether. [INAUDIBLE] it is truth. I was with [INAUDIBLE],” she admitted.
Dieziani Alison Madueke, the all powerful Petroleum minister under ex-president Goodluck Jonathan’s government is currently being investigated in Nigeria, United Kingdom, and the United States.