Court orders freezing of $1.8bn assets of Kola Aluko, Jide Omokore, Atlantic Energy

ABUJA—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 Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, in a wide range of shady business dealings that illegally transferred country’s oil assets to them and their companies. The legal

documents, exclusively obtained by an online publication, SaharaReporters, demanded a global freeze of $1.8 billion in assets stolen by Atlantic Energy executives Kola Aluko and Jide Omokore. This development followed reports that Mr. Aluko sold his lavish Bel-Air mansion in Los Angeles, USA, at a $2 million loss. Mr. Omokore had also been under intense scrutiny by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, which seized a 2 million pound wristwatch from him on April 27, 2016 and raided his Nigerian homes on October 2, 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, Mrs. Diezani Alison 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, Messrs Aluko and Omikore took more than $1.7 billion from the federal 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.