Diezani Alison-Madueke, immediate past minister of petroleum resources, has revealed that her “good friend”, Muhammad Sanusi II, the Emir of Kano, wanted to be president of African Development Bank (AfDB).

She suggested that the former CBN governor could have been angry with her, based on how some people close to Goodluck Jonathan, the former president, frustrated his AfDB ambition.

Akinwunmi Adesina, former minister for agriculture and rural development, was eventually elected the eight president of the bank in May.

Alison-Madueke, who is currently battling with cancer, also maintained that Sanusi’s allegations about missing $20bn were false.

In an interview with Dele Momodu, publisher of Ovation Magazine and TheBoss newspaper,  Diezani said she never stole any money, challenging her accusers to publish facts.

“If there is one issue I must pursue in this world, it is the biggest lie of this money. How can $20billion disappear just like that? Where did it disappear to? Is it possible that such an amount would not be traceable?” she queried.

“This is more painful coming from someone I considered a good friend who should appreciate the gravity of such allegation. I challenge anyone to come forward with facts showing that I stole government or public money. I’ve never stolen Nigeria’s money.

“Rather, I worked hard to halt the rampant business of round-tripping. When I brought in Reginald Stanley to clean up the place, I requested for a list of the defaulters.

“There were about 92 of them and I made sure we sanctioned them. You can imagine the threat to my life but I was ready to defend the economic interests of my country. In fact, we were able to reduce the oil subsidy by about half. No one has applauded our effort.”

She went on to speak about the former CBN governor’s relationship with the president at about the time of his termination.

“There were those who said the then Governor of Central Bank must have been angry at me because of the way the Presidency treated him. In all honesty, he was being blocked from seeing the President by some of Oga’s people (presidential aides) but it had nothing to do with me.

“I was the one who even told Oga about the development and Oga said he would meet him in London on one of his trips. Unfortunately, my boss fell ill and was rushed to King Edward Hospital and the meeting was aborted.”

“Sanusi and I had been friends. There was no way I would have done anything bad to him. He even came to my house to inform me about his interest in heading the African Development Bank and we discussed for about two hours.

“I promised to support him and I spoke to Oga about it. We were together on the Reconciliation Committee that looked into the accounts of NNPC. Yes there were gaps but not on the alarming scale being circulated. Markafi [former Governor of Kaduna State] did a thorough job. You know he is a very sound accountant.”

In the full interview,  Diezani said her mother, Beatrice Agama, who has been in the centre of numerous allegations, was loved and respected by militants in the Niger Delta

divinehand2003:
Madam, pls explain how you had $9 billion starched away at overseas.

Boscojugunu:
NOTED. please kindly return our 13 billion pounds. The thanks

Boscojugunu:
NOTED. please kindly return our 13 billion pounds. The thanks

divinehand2003:
Madam, pls explain how you had $9 billion starched away at overseas.

wheredemdey:





Ogbeni do you know what 13 and 9billion dollars is??.....do you even know how much is the entire nigerias annual budget that just one person will take away a whopping 13billion dollars??

Pls read more and grow a brain if possible...we all know diezani stole but not to that amount people are banding about..

You are a youth...dont subscribe to beer parlour gossip and call figures like some village drunk or those newspaper stand guys.

Boscojugunu:
NOTED. please kindly return our 13 billion pounds. thanks

Saturn213:
Miraculous cancer that suddenly appeared after Buhari won the elections.

She has houses in America and her children live there. America has better healthcare facilities and expertise to treat her so called cancer, why is she not there??

Because she knows that American justice system is more stringent than the UK

Diezani will face justice whether on a hospital bed or operating table

seunmsg:
Nothing bad in Sanusi aspiring to head the AfDB. His aspiration notwithstanding, he has a duty to reveal the high level of corruption that was going on in the oil industry under Dezaini. Any attempt to link Sanusi's aspirations to the obvious corruption that he revealed is just diversionary.

wheredemdey:





Ogbeni do you know what 13 and 9billion dollars is??.....do you even know how much is the entire nigerias annual budget that just one person will take away a whopping 13billion dollars??

Pls read more and grow a brain if possible...we all know diezani stole but not to that amount people are banding about..

You are a youth...dont subscribe to beer parlour gossip and call figures like some village drunk or those newspaper stand guys.

divinehand2003:
Madam, pls explain how you had $9 billion starched away at overseas.

Maybe you should be reminded that even Okonjo Iweala later admit that about half of the amount mentioned by Sanusi was unaccounted for at a period.

chukwudi44:


The problem is that Sanusi could not substantiate his claims!! The fool was even sounding confused!! He started with $49Billion then after sometime cam down to $10billion and finally went up again to $20 billion!! So which of this figures should we deal with? Where are the facts behind the allegations?

The facts that the Buhari government has not found anything worthwhile to press charges against her means there is little truth to these allegations.