The Economic Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has deleted a fake report posted on Saturdayon its Instagram handle claiming ex minister of Petroleum, Diezani Alison-Madueke admitted stealing $9 billion from government coffers and begging President Bola Tinubu for clemency to return to Nigeria.
The fake report was later pulled down after generating thousands of views. But the EFCC did not offer any explanation nor apology for sharing the fake report.
The Peoples Gazette quoted spokesperson for the EFCC, Dele Oyewale, saying he was not aware of the fake news shared on the agency Instagram page.
“There is nothing like that. Whatever is not signed by me is not from us,” Mr Oyewale said.
The online news medium said when it asked Oyewale to explain how the fake report made it to the agency’s Instagram page without his knowledge, he said, “I didn’t send anything. That’s what I will tell you.”
Mrs Alison-Madueke, 63, who was petroleum minister between 2010 and 2015, under former President Goodluck Jonathan’s government, is currently facing trial in the United Kingdom over bribery allegations.
In October, she appeared before Westminster Magistrates Court in the UK over an alleged £100,000 bribery offence. She was granted bail by a UK court upon meeting her bail conditions which included the sum of £70,000 surety.
Earlier, the anti-graft agency said that though Mrs Alison-Madueke was being tried over bribery allegations in the UK, she would be tried separately over money laundering charges in Nigeri
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