In a stunning legal victory, a United Kingdom court has acquitted Nigeria’s former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs Diezani Alison-Madueke, of all bribery and corruption charges brought against her by the British government.
A jury at the Southwark Crown Court in London on Wednesday found the 65-year-old not guilty on a six-count charge, which included five counts of receiving bribes and one count of conspiracy to commit bribery.
The verdict follows more than 46 hours of intensive jury deliberations, completely vindicating the former minister who had consistently maintained her innocence since her initial arrest by the UK National Crime Agency (NCA) in October 2015.
The ‘life of luxury’ allegations
The Crown Prosecution Service had alleged that while serving as Nigeria’s petroleum minister between 2010 and 2015 under the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan, Mrs Diezani Alison-Madueke accepted significant financial benefits from oil and gas executives in exchange for steering lucrative state energy contracts.
The prosecution claimed she was rewarded with a “life of luxury” in London, pointing to high-end real estate renovations, private jet flights, and cash deliveries.
However, in her defence, Alison-Madueke argued that she never accepted bribes, emphasising that she lacked the unilateral constitutional authority to allocate oil contracts.
Her defence successfully convinced the jury that the prosecution’s case relied on circumstantial claims that did not meet the threshold of criminal guilt.
Co-defendants, brother vindicated
The sweeping verdict also cleared two other individuals listed as co-defendants in the high-profile case.
Olatimbo Ayinde, a 54-year-old oil industry executive who faced charges of bribing a foreign public official, was found not guilty.
Similarly, the former minister’s brother, 69-year-old Doye Agama, was fully acquitted. He had been accused of conspiracy to commit bribery in connection with funds allegedly channelled into his church.
A setback for anti-graft agencies
The absolute acquittal stands as a major setback for the UK’s international anti-corruption units, which spent over a decade conducting cross-border investigations into the former minister’s financial dealings.
Mrs Diezani Alison-Madueke, who made history as the first female President of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), has lived in the UK since leaving office in 2015. The landmark ruling effectively ends her long-standing legal battle with British prosecutors.
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