LAGOS/ABUJA
(Reuters) - Nigeria's former oil minister Diezani Alison-Madueke was
arrested in London on Friday, a source from Nigeria's presidency circle
and another with links to her family said.
Alison-Madueke was minister from 2010 until May 2015 under
former president Goodluck Jonathan, who was defeated by Muhammadu
Buhari at the polls in March.
Buhari took office in May promising to root out corruption
in Africa's most populous country, where few benefit from the OPEC
member's enormous energy resources.
A police spokesman in London said he had no record of such
an arrest. The National Crime Agency did not immediately respond to a
request for comment.
But in a short statement on its website, the NCA said its
International Corruption Unit had arrested five people across London on
suspicion of bribery and corruption offences on Friday, without naming
the suspects.www.sweetgracey.blogspot.com
Nigerian media outlets, including Channels TV, said that Alison-Madueke
had been granted bail after several hours in custody.
Reuters was unable to reach Alison-Madueke's personal
assistant or a lawyer representing her. She has previously denied to
Reuters any wrongdoing when questioned about missing public funds and
graft allegations.
In a sign that the arrest had been coordinated with Nigerian
authorities, the financial crimes unit sealed one of Alison-Madueke's
houses in the upmarket Asokoro district in the capital Abuja, two
security officials said.
During her time in office, former central bank governor
Lamido Sanusi was sacked after he raised concern that tens of billions
of dollars in oil revenues had not been remitted to state coffers by the
government-run oil company NNPC between January 2012 and July 2013.
Ordinary Nigerians, tired of seeing no narrowing of the
West African country's wealth gap, have been eagerly waiting to see the
results of probes into the oil sector.
Buhari said
on Sunday that the prosecution of those suspected of misappropriating
the NNPC's revenue under past administrations would begin soon.
Getting tough on corruption would deflect criticism of
Buhari for failing to appoint a cabinet or an economic team four months
after taking office as Nigeria's economy is going through a severe
crisis due to the plunge in global oil prices.
(Reporting by Felix Onuah and Julia Payne, additional
reporting by UK newsroom; writing by Julia Payne and Ulf Laessing;
editing by Janet Lawrence and G Crosse)
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