Diezani Alison-Madueke Maintained Rooms In Two New York Luxury Hotels During UN Assembly- Sahara Reporters

Investigations by SaharaReporters revealed
that Nigeria’s Petroleum Minister, Diezani
Alison-Madueke, booked and paid for two
rooms in two separate high-cost hotels during
the four nights she spent in New York City
during the just concluded United Nations
General Assembly.
Impeccable sources within the Presidency and
the delegation of the Nigerian National
Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) disclosed that
the minister’s two rooms were booked under
a pseudonym.
Saharareporters discovered that Joe Mordi,
one of the minister’s closest aides who works
at the NNPC office in London, booked her into
a one-bedroom suite at Four Seasons Hotel
located at 57 East 57th Street, New York.
When SaharaReporters inquired at the hotel,
a staff said that the suite cost $5,000 per
night. Ms. Alison-Madueke, who is known
around Presidency circles as “Prime Minister,”
was also booked into another room at the
Pierre Hotel on 2 East 61st Street in New York
where President Goodluck Jonathan lodged
during his stay in New York. SaharaReporters
found out that her room on the 28th floor of
the Pierre Hotel cost Nigerian tax payers
$3,000 per night. There were also additional
charges in taxes and service fees.
Ms. Alison-Madueke arrived in New York in
style on a private jet on Monday from London
where she had made a brief stop to continue
treatment for an undisclosed ailment. She is
billed to return to London today. President
Jonathan left New York last night around 6:00
p.m. and has arrived in Nigeria very early
today.
SaharaReporters also learnt that, apart from
the lavish double accommodation enjoyed by
the Petroleum minister in two of New York
City’s most expensive hotels, her delegation of
seven NNPC officials also engaged in other
acts of reckless spending. “The NNPC hired
ten limousines to ferry its 7 officials, including
the General Managing Director,” said our
source. Five of the limousines, rented for
$1,800 each per day, were stationed
permanently in front of the Pierre Hotel while
another five were put to the service of the
NNPC officials at the Four Seasons.
The Nigerian delegation’s profligacy during
the New York trip earned the attraction of
America’s mainstream media. New York-based
National Broadcasting Corporation ((NBC), one
of the top three television networks in the US,
yesterday reported that African delegates
from the poorest countries stayed in some of
the most expensive hotels and shopped in
high-priced retail stores during the UN
General Assembly. The network focused on
delegates from such countries as Togo,
Swaziland, and Nigeria. SaharaReporters had
earlier reported that President Jonathan was
quartered at the Pierre Hotel in a suite that
cost $10,000 per night.
International measurements of social indices
routinely rank Nigeria as one of the world’s
least developed countries. Some 70% of
Nigerians live on less than 2 dollars per day.
“It is sad that the mindless waste of public
resources in New York by President Jonathan
and other Nigerian officials was happening at
a time when two million Nigerians have been
displaced from their homes by ravaging
floods,” said an Abuja-based civil society
activist.