London (AFP) – The first woman president of OPEC and Nigeria’s former oil minister, Diezani Alison-Madueke, was cleared of bribery charges in a UK trial Wednesday, her defence lawyers said in a statement. “Diezani Alison-Madueke was cleared of six charges of bribery at Southwark Crown Court on 17 June 2026, after a five-month trial,” defence lawyer Jonathan Laidlaw said in a press release.
The trial was brought by the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA), which targets serious organised and international crime, after a years-long investigation concerning alleged offences between 2011 and 2015. Laidlaw told the jury at the London court in January that there was a “gross delay” in the charges being brought, resulting in “a great deal of material which would have established her innocence” being denied.
She had been accused of accepting “financial or other advantages” from individuals linked to two energy companies that had secured contracts with Nigeria’s state-owned petroleum corporation when she was the country’s oil minister. Alison-Madueke had also been accused by prosecutors of enjoying a “life of luxury” funded by those interested in the lucrative oil and gas contracts. Her lifestyle was described as involving chauffeur-driven cars, a private jet flight to Nigeria, and refurbishment work and staff costs at several London properties.
Her defence maintained that records proving her innocence had “disappeared” and that she could no longer access papers at home in Nigeria as her passport had been retained by British police since her first arrest 11 years ago. President of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) between 2014 and 2015, Alison-Madueke has been involved in numerous legal cases around the world, including in the United States. She has been on bail in Britain since she was first arrested in October 2015. In 2023, she was formally charged with accepting bribes, which she denied. She had a British address at the time of the alleged offences, according to the prosecution.
© 2024 AFP
