Controversy Trails Diezani’s Illness After Oshiomhole’s $6B Allegation

There are fresh indications of a covert surrounding the alleged illness of Diezani Alison-Madueke, the former minister of petroleum.

According to a report on Sahara Reporters, the embattled Alison-Madueke is allegedly playing the sick card in the United Kingdom where she has spent most of her time since President Muhammadu Buhari’s victory at the poll.

Contrary to media reports that Alison-Madueke is in an Intensive Care Unit (ICU), two sources in the UK who are quite familiar with the former minister’s physical condition told Sahara Reporters today, July 28, that her condition had not worsened.

One of the sources went as far as alleging that the ex-Petroleum Minister might be coordinating the reports about her ill health as a strategy to attract public sympathy and official pardon from President Muhammadu Buhari.

This follows an extensive intelligence from US authorities detailing the extent of Alison-Madueke’s looting of petro-dollars under the watch of former president Jonathan, which was handed over to President Buhari during his 4-day visit to the country.

The UK source disclosed that Alison-Madueke recently concluded a course of treatment for cancer, adding that she is not hospitalized in London as being hyped by some members of her family.

Another source revealed that he and others were in touch with the former minister as recently as yesterday.

“She is definitely not in an ICU [intensive care unit] as I understand that some press people have been reporting,” the source said.

He added: “All I know is that there is a fair amount of anxiety on her part about all the reports coming out about her management of the affairs of the oil sector. Perhaps this anxiety is translating into efforts to portray her as sicker than she is, in reality. That strategy is understandable, as a way of lessening public reaction to reports that are out there. And there’s considerable uncertainty about what [President] Buhari is going to do. So, yes, there’s an advantage to the reports [of her critical ill health], but I can tell you she’s not in any devastated shape. Far from it.”

It would be recalled that Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo state told reporters at the State House in Abuja that US officials informed Buhari that a Nigerian minister under President Jonathan stole as much as $6 billion from the Nigerian treasury.

Although Oshiomhole did not disclose the name of the minister involved, there were however indications that Alison-Madueke was the minister in question.