Top operatives of the EFCC told the Punch that the British investigators were drawn from the Seizures Organised Crimes Agency.
The unnamed EFCC sources said the British detectives have been on Alison-Madueke’s trail for two months before they finally moved against her.
The former petroleum minister left Nigeria shortly before the inauguration of President Muhammadu Buhari in May this year.
The EFCC team is mainly made up of operatives from the subsidy unit formed in August 2015 by the Chairman of the anti-corruption agency, Ibrahim Lamorde, to investigate the activities of Alison-Madueke and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation.
The unit was mandated to probe all the accounts of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, which were under the supervision of the former minister.
Lamorde and the Director of Operations of the EFCC, Mr. Olusola Adegbite are personally supervising the investigations.
Meanwhile, the NCA has also revealed that it started investigating the former Petroleum Minister since 2013.
Alison-Madueke was granted a conditional police bail after the arrest, but her passport was allegedly withheld.
In an update on its website, the NCA noted that the investigation started about two years ago.
“The investigation commenced in 2013 under the Proceeds of Corruption Unit, and transferred to the NCA earlier this year (2015). The International Corruption Unit investigates bribery of foreign public officials by individuals or companies from the UK and money laundering by corrupt foreign officials and their associates,” it stated.
The UK crime agency added that the ICU would also trace and recover the proceeds of Alison-Madueke’s alleged corruption and support Nigeria’s law enforcement agencies with international anti-corruption investigations.
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