By Onyewuchi Ojinnaka
Senior Correspondent
The former Petroleum Minister, Mrs Diezani Alison-Madueke, has filed an aplication before Justice Rilwan Aikawa of a Federal High Court, Lagos, seeking to be joined as a defendant in a money laundering suit insituted against Dele Belgore (SAN) and Professor Abubakar Sulaiman, former minister of National Planning by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
After moving the application by her counsel, Justice Aikawa then fixed October 30 for hearing of the application, adding that the court would ensure that the former minister is given fair hearing.
Specifically, Alison-Madueke wants to be joined as a defendant in the N500 million fraud charge initiated against Dele Belgore and Professor Abubakar Sulaiman.
It would be recalled that the anti-graft agency had in a five-count amended charge named the former petroleum minister as a culprit in the criminal trial of Belgore and Sulaiman over an alleged N500 million fraud.
The EFCC particularly argued that the N500 million was part of the sum of $115 million which the former minister allegedly doled out to compromise the 2015 general elections.