The corruption trial of Diezani Alison-Madueke, a former Nigerian oil minister and the first woman to serve as president of OPEC, is due to begin in London on Monday.
The 65-year-old faces five charges of accepting bribes and one charge of conspiracy to commit bribery, all linked to her tenure as Nigeria’s minister of petroleum resources between 2010 and 2015, during the presidency of Goodluck Jonathan.
Alison-Madueke is accused of accepting “financial or other advantages” from individuals connected to two energy companies between 2011 and 2015. These allegedly included the use of several London properties, refurbishment work and staff costs at those properties, furniture, chauffeur-driven cars, a private jet flight to Nigeria and €100,000 (£85,000) in cash.
Further charges allege that she received bribes in the form of school fees for her son, goods from luxury retailers such as Harrods and Louis Vuitton, and additional private jet flights.
According to the indictment, accepting these benefits amounted to the “improper performance” of her duties as oil minister.
She appeared in a London court last week for preliminary hearings, including procedural matters and jury selection, ahead of a trial expected to last between 10 and 12 weeks.
Two other defendants, Doye Agama and Olatimbo Ayinde, are also facing bribery charges in connection with the case.
Alison-Madueke has been on bail since her arrest in London in October 2015 and has denied all the allegations against her.
In 2023, she was formally charged with bribery offences, the National Crime Agency (NCA) said at the time.
“We suspect Diezani Alison-Madueke abused her position in Nigeria and accepted financial rewards in exchange for awarding contracts worth many millions of pounds,” the NCA said.
Earlier in 2023, the NCA said it had provided evidence to US prosecutors enabling the recovery of assets worth $53.1 million linked to Alison-Madueke’s alleged corruption. These included luxury properties in California and New York, as well as a 65-metre (213-foot) superyacht, the Galactica Star, according to the US Department of Justice.
Born in 1960 into a prosperous family in the oil city of Port Harcourt, Alison-Madueke studied architecture in the UK and the United States before joining the Nigerian subsidiary of oil major Shell.
Her political career included three senior government roles: transport minister in 2007 under President Umaru Yar’Adua, followed by minister of mines and steel development.
After Jonathan assumed the presidency following Yar’Adua’s death, he appointed her minister of petroleum resources in April 2010. In 2014, she became the first female president of OPEC, a position she held for about a year.
