Diezani’s Husband Asks Court To Bar Ex-wife From Using His Name

Wale Igbintade

Nigerians woke up to the unpleasant news of dissolution of union from the household of the former top Naval Officer, Rear Admiral Allison Madueke and his wife, the former Petroleum Minister under former President Goodluck Jonathan, Diezani Alison Madueke. The duo got married in 1999 in a society wedding barely three years after he lost his first wife and mother of his five adult children. To many, it was marriage made in heaven. Diezani, a self-made woman was a top female Executive director at Shell. The marriage later produced one child, a boy. Diezani dabbled into politics holding offices until she cliched the top job at the lucrative oil ministry. She ran into trouble water shortly after the then President Buhari was voted in 2015. Diezani relocated to the UK where she has since faced various allegations of this and that. It was shocking when news flittered that the former Chief of Naval Staff, Admiral Alison Madueke, has asked a Lagos State High Court, to stop his former wife Diezani Alison Madueke from using his first name (Alison) and surname (Madueke) as her Surname following the dissolution of their marriage.

The Petitioner prayed the court for an order directing the respondent (Diezani) to adopt and revert to her pre-marital surname (Agama) and also publications in newspapers of national circulation in both Nigeria and the United Kingdom of a notice of her discontinuation of the use of the Petitioner’s First name (Alison) and Surname (Madueke).

The petition, in the High Court of Lagos, suit no LD/15144HD/2024, seeks that the ex-wife desist from using the petitioner’s name, which poses a significant risk of legal and financial harm to the petitioner as the respondent faces criminal trials in Nigeria and UK.

The petition stated that they stopped living together in May 2015 after her ministerial appointment and in November 2021, citing irretrievable breakdown of marriage, Diezani filed a petition for dissolution of marriage (Suit No. NSD/MG345/2021) at the High Court of Nassarawa State, Nassarawa Judicial Division, sitting at Mararaba Gurku and on April 13, 2022, Judgment was delivered in Suit No. NSD/MG345/2021 by Hon. Justice A.A. Ozegya, dissolving the marriage between the Petitioner and the Respondent on the ground that the marriage has broken down irretrievably.

The retired Naval officer in his petition, stated that the respondent faces public allegations of corruption and financial misconduct, for which trials are ongoing for both. The persistent portrayal of the respondent as the spouse of the petitioner is creating embarrassment, a misleading impression and tarnishing the reputation, integrity, and public image of the Petitioner.

Even though the marriage has been dissolved and is now legally finalised, the respondent, more than two years later, continues to use the Petitioner’s first name (Alison) and surname (Madueke) as her own without any justification or consent from the Petitioner, which falsely suggests to the public continuing relationship between the parties though same has since legally ended.=

According to the statement, the petitioner instructed his solicitors to address a letter to the respondent, requesting her to cease the ongoing use of his first name and surname. Messrs Foundation Chambers sent a formal letter, dated 14th December 2023 urging the Respondent to revert to her pre-marital name (Diezani Kogbeni Agama) following the legal dissolution of the marriage.

In a 5-paragraph verifying affidavit in support of petition deposed to by the petitioner, (Rear Admiral Alison Amaechina Madueke (Rtd)), he stated that the marriage certificate was with the Respondent at all material times and he was not having a copy.

He said the marriage between him and the Respondent has been validly dissolved in Suit No. NSD/MG345/202U at the High Court of Nassarawa State, Nassarawa Judicial Division, siting at Mararaba Gurku.