By Francis Ajuonuma
The £100 million bribery and corruption trial of former Nigerian Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke, resumed on Monday at Southwark Crown Court in London, almost 10 years after her arrest.
Alison-Madueke, who served as Nigeria’s oil minister between 2011 and 2015 and was the first woman to lead the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), is facing multiple charges bordering on bribery and misconduct in public office.
Prosecutors allege that she received benefits worth about £100 million in exchange for using her position to influence the award of lucrative oil and gas contracts involving the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and its subsidiaries.
The alleged inducements include private jet flights, luxury hotel accommodation, chauffeur-driven vehicles, expensive shopping sprees, property refurbishment in London, and payment of school fees for her son.
Alison-Madueke has pleaded not guilty to all the charges.
Opening the defence case, her lawyer, Jonathan Laidlaw, told the jury that the former minister’s ability to defend herself properly had been undermined by the unavailability of key documents and restrictions placed on her movement since her arrest in 2015.
Laidlaw said British authorities seized her passport, preventing her from travelling to Nigeria to retrieve documents critical to her defence.
He further argued that some of the payments allegedly made on her behalf in the United Kingdom were later reimbursed from Nigeria, noting that Nigerian law prohibits serving ministers from maintaining foreign bank accounts.
Alison-Madueke was arrested in London in October 2015 during an investigation into suspected large-scale corruption in Nigeria’s oil sector.
She was granted bail but remained under investigation for several years before being formally charged in 2023.
Two other defendants, her brother, Doye Agama, and businessman Olatimbo Ayinde, are also standing trial on related bribery charges.
The case is being closely watched both in Nigeria and internationally because of its implications for transparency, accountability and the fight against corruption in the global energy industry.
Further hearings and witness testimonies are expected in the coming weeks as the prosecution and defence continue to present their cases.
