News
US Considers Visa Ban, Financial Sanctions on Alison-Madueke, Others
United States government is reportedly considering imposing a visa ban or financial sanctions against Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, ex-petroleum minister, and a dozen of her associates, government officials in the oil and gas sector and politicians.
Quoting US officials, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported yesterday that Washington was scrutinising whether Alison-Madueke’s associates laundered money in the US, United Kingdom and other countries.
In the report, The Wall Street Journal said the UK and US have thrown their muscle behind Buhari’s bid to recover billions of dollars he alleges his compatriots embezzled and stashed abroad.
However, at stake is whether courtrooms thousands of miles from Africa can help the continent track down stolen money, seize it, try the culprits and return the funds in a timely fashion.
In May, Buhari became the first Nigerian to unseat an incumbent president, elected on his vow to recover a vast fortune of money lost to corruption. Within weeks, he was at the White House to ask for help.
“We’re all in,” replied Vice-President Joe Biden, said Garba Shehu, spokesman of the president.
When it comes to helping Africa’s top economy battle graft, this month has offered the first glimpse of how fast and far Buhari’s friends abroad can move.
According to WSJ, in the past, Western governments have acted on similar pleas from other African states—but this time, they have operated with unprecedented nimbleness.
Following a summer meeting in Washington between British and American investigators, London police on October 2 raided a luxurious home near Regent’s Park. There they briefly detained Alison-Madueke, oil minister from 2010 to 2015.
Hours later, her neighbours in Nigeria watched as scores of cops searched her house: “The former minister has questions to answer,” said Bitrus Babuje, a fellow resident of the leafy Abuja suburb called Asokoro.
One of Africa’s most prominent politicians, Alison-Madueke and her associates are suspected of bribery, corruption and laundering money through British and US banks. She has previously denied those allegations and police haven’t charged her with anything.
A lawyer speaking on her behalf, Oscar Onwudiwe, said she was invited by the police in London this month but not arrested. He said he didn’t know the purpose of the invitation. “If the police come to your house for any reason, does it make you a criminal?” he told WSJ.
For the federal government, the detention announces Buhari’s intent to root out endemic corruption, a promise at the core of his campaign. Eventually, the crackdown could help recover the much-needed funds for an exchequer hit hard by collapsing oil prices.
“Most of the money taken out of Nigeria is taken to the West,” said Femi Adesina, a spokesman for Buhari. “So Nigeria will need collaboration with the West.”
Nigeria isn’t the first African country to find its officials investigated abroad for financial crimes. But the current flurry of legal action seems unique for its speed and scope. Buhari is president of Africa’s most populous state—and he has leveraged that position to steer a global hunt for laundered money.
Anticorruption investigators in Nigeria have arrested three directors at the state oil company – Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) – in recent days, said two people close to the administration. None were charged; the oil company says it is eager to expose corrupt employees.
American officials have also considered a visa ban or financial sanctions against Alison-Madueke and a dozen of her associates, oil officials and politicians, US officials said. Washington is scrutinising whether her associates laundered money in the US, the UK and other countries, the officials said.
Both the US State Department and the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) declined to comment on their investigations: “We continue to work with Nigeria to fight corruption,” a State Department official said.
Together, the litany of legal actions—conducted on three continents— point to a swift but uncertain precedent for Africa’s struggle against corruption.
“The real issue is the signalling effect: that holding public office in Nigeria should not be a licence to plunder,” said Bismarck Rewane, Managing Director of Lagos research firm Financial Derivatives Company. “It’s working. The number of bribes I’m being asked for has dropped.”
For the better part of a decade, graft fighters in Africa, having lost faith in their own courts, have asked judges in Europe and America to wage their battles.
Major political figures in Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, and Republic of Congo have all seen their assets frozen or targeted by French or American courts.
But those investigations have proceeded slowly. In some cases, they have stalled. Prosecutors have struggled to prove that cars, houses, and artwork there were purchased with money stolen thousands of miles away.
For now, a civil court in West London has frozen £27,000 ($41,400) confiscated by the police from Alison-Madueke, said a clerk at the court. Police also seized £5,000 and $2,000 from her mother, court clerks added. The small amount is the first publicly recorded evidence that legal action has been taken against the former minister and her family.
Buhari has also been in London lately: He met with Prime Minister David Cameron at his Downing Street office in May.
On the flight there, he sat in British Airways’ first class—just a few rows in front of Alison-Madueke—said two people familiar with the matter. The president-elect at the time refused to speak to her, they said, for the entire six-hour flight.
Management of Nigeria CommunicationsWeek Media has withdrawn its publication titled “Adefolarin Ogunsanya and the Allegations of Shareholder Interference and Self-Dealing at Pan African Towers,” which was published on its platform.
The decision to retract the story follows an editorial review to ensure that the platform maintains the highest standards of accuracy, fairness and responsible journalism in reporting matters that are the subject of ongoing judicial proceedings.
Nigeria CommunicationsWeek acknowledges that the issues raised in the publication remain before the courts and have not been finally determined.
Accordingly, the organisation has decided to remove the article from its platforms pending the conclusion of the legal processes or the availability of additional verified information.
The publication regrets any inconvenience or misunderstanding the report may have caused to readers or any individuals or organisations mentioned in the story.
Nigeria CommunicationsWeek remains committed to the principles of balanced, factual and ethical journalism and will continue to uphold professional standards in its coverage of judicial and corporate governance matters.
INTERPOL’s African Cyberthreat Assessment Report 2026 revealed that Artificial intelligence accounts for 55 per cent of reported cybercrimes across Africa and making attacks faster, more sophisticated and increasingly difficult to detect.
The report warns that the continent’s rapid digital transformation, marked by more than 1.1 billion mobile subscribers in 2025, is being matched by an equally rapid evolution in cybercrime, while fragmented legislation and limited AI readiness among law enforcement agencies continue to weaken responses.
The 40-page assessment, based on survey data from 36 African member countries, said cybercrime has shifted from isolated criminal activity to an industrialised, borderless ecosystem powered by AI.
According to the report, East Africa has become a hotspot for mobile money fraud and ransomware attacks targeting critical infrastructure, while business email compromise (BEC) and romance scams are widespread across Central and West Africa.
Southern Africa, it noted, has become an attractive target for international cybercriminals due to its high level of internet connectivity.
The report also highlighted the growing financial impact of cybercrime across the continent, revealing that losses have more than doubled since 2024, rising from 192 million dollars to 484 million dollars.
It attributed the increase largely to AI-enabled scams, credential harvesting and automated social engineering attacks.
INTERPOL said online scams remained the most commonly reported form of cybercrime in 2025, with criminals exploiting mobile money platforms, social media and AI-generated content to deceive victims.
It added that 72 per cent of surveyed countries reported the existence of scam centres, with the highest concentration recorded in Southern and West Africa.
The report further identified digital sextortion and online harassment as persistent threats, driven increasingly by AI-generated deepfakes and synthetic media.
According to data from TrendAI, one of INTERPOL’s partners, about 600,000 sextortion incidents were detected during the reporting period.
Business email compromise schemes have also become more sophisticated, with AI being used to generate highly convincing email communications.
The report said Africa-based threat actors are increasingly targeting victims in Europe and North America using cyber infrastructure spread across multiple jurisdictions.
INTERPOL warned that the absence of real-time information sharing between banks, telecommunications companies and law enforcement agencies has created significant vulnerabilities in tackling financial cybercrime.
It said cybercriminals are no longer relying solely on stolen credentials but are now creating AI-generated synthetic identities by combining genuine personal information with fabricated details.
These synthetic identities, the report noted, have been used to bypass biometric verification systems, open bank accounts, obtain mobile loans and register SIM cards under false identities.
Neal Jetton, Director of INTERPOL’s Cybercrime Directorate, described cybercrime as one of the most significant criminal threats facing Africa.
“Cybercrime has emerged as one of the most significant criminal threats to the region. AI is automating every stage of a cyberattack from reconnaissance and phishing to extortion and evasion.
“However, we see that when countries work together, cybercriminal infrastructure can be identified, disrupted and dismantled,” he said.
Despite the growing threat, the report highlighted progress in strengthening cybersecurity across the continent.
It disclosed that 17 African countries enacted or amended cybercrime legislation in 2025, while Senegal launched an online reporting platform to improve responses to online offences affecting children.
The report also noted that regional capacity-building initiatives are helping to improve long-term cyber resilience.
INTERPOL said four major cybercrime operations conducted in 2025, Operation Serengeti 2.0, Operation Contender 3.0, Operation Sentinel and Operation Red Card 2.0, resulted in more than 1,500 arrests, the seizure of hundreds of electronic devices and the recovery of over 100 million dollars.
To address the growing threat, the report recommended the adoption of standardised digital forensic capabilities, stronger cross-border collaboration, greater investment in AI literacy for law enforcement personnel and formal public-private partnerships to improve cybercrime prevention, detection and response.
The African Cyberthreat Assessment 2026 forms part of INTERPOL’s African Joint Operation against Cybercrime initiative, funded by the United Kingdom’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, with data contributions from Fortinet, Mastercard, the Shadowserver Foundation, S2W and TrendAI.
Nigerian students will soon design, assemble, test and fly drones as part of their university education, following a partnership between Miva Open University and Abuja-based defence technology company Terra Industries.
The collaboration comes as Nigeria intensifies efforts to develop indigenous capabilities in advanced manufacturing and defence technology, with both organisations seeking to strengthen Africa’s pipeline of deep-tech talent.
The partnership will see students gain hands-on experience in drone engineering and related technologies through dedicated labs and industry collaboration.
The partners will establish robotics, drone and virtual reality laboratories across Miva’s study centres, beginning with a pilot facility in Abuja.
Students will also gain access to industry-led workshops, research opportunities, internships and mentorship in artificial intelligence, robotics, cybersecurity and autonomous systems.
According to the partners, Terra’s engineering teams will work alongside Miva faculty to integrate hands-on hardware training into academic programmes, exposing students to real-world engineering challenges and building industry experience before graduation.
Nathan Nwachuku, co-founder and CEO of Terra Industries, said Africa’s technological future depends on developing engineers capable of building solutions for local challenges.
“The engineers who will build Africa’s future must learn by building. This partnership creates opportunities for students to work with the technologies shaping modern security, infrastructure and autonomous systems,” said Nwachuku.
Miva Open University said the initiative forms part of its commitment to experiential learning, adding that students will have the opportunity to “design, test and fly drones as part of their academic experience”.
The partnership builds on Terra’s expanding role in Nigeria’s defence technology sector. Earlier this year, the company signed a joint venture with the Defence Industries Corporation of Nigeria to localise the production of drones, robotics systems and cybersecurity infrastructure, supporting efforts to strengthen domestic manufacturing and reduce reliance on imports.
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