Former Nigerian oil minister cleared of UK bribery charges

Former Nigerian oil minister Diezani Alison-Madueke has been cleared by a London court after more than a decade of investigations into allegations that she accepted bribes from oil executives.

A jury at Southwark Crown Court found the 65-year-old not guilty of five counts of accepting bribes and one count of conspiracy to commit bribery.

The verdict ends a long-running prosecution brought after a 13-year investigation by the UK’s National Crime Agency.

Alison-Madueke, who served as Nigeria’s oil minister from 2010 to 2015, was also the first woman to become president of OPEC.

The prosecution had alleged that wealthy oil businessmen funded luxury accommodation, shopping and other expenses for her in the UK in return for access and influence.

But the case collapsed after the jury rejected the bribery allegations.

Her older brother, Doye Agama, 69, an archbishop at a Pentecostal church in Manchester, was also cleared of conspiracy to commit bribery.

Oil executive Olatimbo Ayinde, 54, was found not guilty of bribery and bribery of a foreign public official.

During the trial, Alison-Madueke denied ever seeking or accepting bribes.

She presented herself as a reform-minded public official who fought corruption and insisted on proper procedure.

She told the court that she had been nicknamed “Madam due process” because of her strict approach to rules.

Her defence argued that she had been unfairly targeted and that important documents capable of supporting her case had gone missing in Nigeria.

The defence also criticised the long delay in bringing the matter to trial, saying it had left her unable to work or travel freely for years.

Alison-Madueke told the court that some of the items described by prosecutors as lavish benefits were not for her personal use.

She said she had sometimes been with the businessmen to advise on interior design for their own properties.

She also said Nigerian ministers on official foreign duty were not permitted to hold foreign bank accounts and often relied on third parties to meet expenses abroad, with reimbursement later made in Nigeria.

Former Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan, who appointed her as oil minister, did not testify in person but provided a statement.

In it, he said third parties often paid for transport, accommodation and other expenses for ministers travelling on official business.

The prosecution named six oil businessmen alleged to have provided benefits to Alison-Madueke, but none of them was charged.

The defence questioned why they had not been extradited or prosecuted.

It also argued that the investigation was weakened because UK investigators were not present during the 2015 search of Alison-Madueke’s home in Abuja.

The case relied partly on material gathered by Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.

That became a point of challenge during the trial, especially after evidence emerged that co-defendant Olatimbo Ayinde had been assisting Nigerian authorities as an informant in an anti-corruption investigation.

An EFCC investigator told the court that Ayinde had provided vital information to investigators.

After the verdict, Alison-Madueke said her ordeal was over.

She said the case had caused 11 years of pain for her and her family and that the years of public condemnation and scrutiny had finally come to an end.