A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has ordered the forfeiture to the federal government of $21 million (7.6 billion naira) from bank accounts linked to the immediate past Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison Madueke.
The presiding judge, judge Abdulazeez Anka, issued the order on Monday over the sum allegedly held in local bank accounts by Diezani.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), which accused her of corruption, argued in court that she had illicitly laundered the funds with the help of top oil officials.
Since leaving office in 2015, Diezani has been implicated in bribery, fraud, misuse of public funds and money laundering cases in Nigeria, Britain, Italy and the United States.
The former president of the global oil cartel OPEC, the first female to hold the post, she has always denied the allegations which involve billions of dollars siphoned from oil deals and state accounts.
The ruling followed two applications by the EFCC which earlier this month successfully seized properties worth $44 million that Alison-Madueke allegedly purchased with the proceeds of corruption.
