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Indications have emerged on how ex-Minister of Petroleum, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke and a former MD of a parastatal under the NNPC got themselves into trouble with the police in United Kingdom.
Attempts to secretly purchase expensive houses in London by Diezani and the sacked NNPC top shot had sent the police investigators after them since 2013.
Alison-Madueke and the ex-MD had bought a house each in London through a mortgage but the two were said to have attracted suspicion when they offered to pay huge sum to clear the mortgage on the properties at once.
A source said the house bought by Madam Diezani alone cost £12.5m.
It was learnt that the UK’s National Crimes Agency had dispatched a team to Abuja for an investigation into the incomes of the affected public officers because of the huge amount of money that was being paid steadily to defray the amount on the mortgage.
A source told Punch that, “This particular investigation did not originate from Nigeria. I can tell you that this is different from the investigation being conducted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission into the financial operations of the NNPC under Alison-Madueke.
“This is a strictly UK investigation and it has to do with the procurement of a property in the UK for £12.5m through a mortgage arrangement in London.
“The UK authorities became suspicious when they realised that the agreed monthly amount for the mortgage was too high for the income of a public official without other sources of income.
“You know the (UK) people; they kept quiet when the whole arrangement was going on in 2013. They allowed the funds to go into their economy before they moved in against them with the intent to seize the properties.
“She was not the only person that bought the properties. The other guy, a close ally from the NNPC also bought a house in London. These are the issues the UK police are investigating.”
The investigation, which commenced in 2013 climaxed Friday last week with the arrest of Alison-Madueke and four others by the UK police for alleged fraud.
Reuters quoted an administrative officer at the Westminster Magistrates’ Court as saying on Monday that the NCA had applied to the court for an order to seize various sums of money in relation to Alison-Madueke and two other women (one of them her own mother).