Federal high court in Lagos orders worldwide freeze of $1.8billion in assets of Kola Aluko

This article first showed up on Sahara Reporters.

A federal high court in Lagos has granted a Mareva injunction permitting the Nigerian government to freeze assets owned by two Nigerian businessmen Kola Aluko and Jide Omokore, and their company Atlantic Energy. The individuals are linked to former Nigerian oil minister, Diezani Alison-Madueke in a wide range shady business dealings that illegally transferred Nigerian oil assets to them and their companies.

The legal documents, exclusively obtained by SaharaReporters, demanded a global freeze of $1.8 billion in assets stolen by Atlantic Energy executives Kola Aluko and Jide Omokore. This development follows reports that Mr. Aluko sold his lavish Bel-Air mansion in Los Angeles, USA at a $2 million loss. Mr. Omikore has also been under intense scrutiny by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), which seized a 2 million pound wristwatch from him on April 27th, 2016 and raided his Nigerian homes on October 2nd, 2015.

Atlantic Energy was granted enormous contracts from the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC) under the direction of the embattled former Minister for Petroleum Resources Madueke. According to reports, when Mrs. Madueke granted Atlantic Energy contracts through the Strategic Alliance Agreements (SAA) the company did not even legally exist.

According to legal documents, available below, Mr. Aluko and Mr. Omikore stole more than $1.7 billion from the Nigerian government.

Assets specifically mentioned include three mansions in Los Angeles, two high-end apartments in New York City, properties in Santa Barbara, California; numerous properties in Lagos including 43 apartments in Banana Island, 58 vehicles, the Galactica Star yacht, and three airplanes.

The documents for reviewing can be found here: