The prosecutor, Alexandra Healy, in the ongoing trial of former petroleum minister Diezani Alison-Madueke, on Tuesday told the Crown Court in Southwark, England, that the ex-minister accepted bribes from industry figures seeking lucrative oil and gas contracts in Nigeria.
Healy, who was addressing the jury at the opening session of the trial, also claimed that Alison-Madueke received £100,000 ($137,680) in cash, as well as accepting flights on private jets, chauffeur-driven cars, and luxury goods from Louis Vuitton and Harrods.
The 65-year-old former minister was arraigned before the court on a five-count charge of accepting bribes and an additional count of conspiracy to commit bribery, relating to her tenure as Nigeria’s Minister for Petroleum Resources from 2010 to 2015, under the Goodluck Jonathan administration.
Alison-Madueke is accused of accepting “financial or other advantages” from individuals linked to the Atlantic Energy and SPOG Petrochemical groups between 2011 and 2015.
She was arraigned before Judge Michael Snow alongside oil industry executive Olatimbo Ayinde and her brother, 69-year-old Doye Agama, on bribery charges related to the case.
Alison-Madueke had pleaded not guilty to the charge and was granted bail by the court in October 2015 when she was first arrested.
When the matter resumed on Tuesday, Healy emphasised the importance of fighting corruption.
“Bribery and corruption undermine the proper functioning of the global market,” she said and highlighted the need to prevent corruption from spreading internationally.
The prosecutor alleged that the former minister, who served from 2010 to 2015 under President Goodluck Jonathan, frequently stayed in high-end properties provided by those interested in contracting with Nigerian state oil firms in exchange for favours.
She also stated that Alison-Madueke received luxury goods and property from individuals who believed she would use her influence to benefit them.
Healy, however, said that no evidence suggested she awarded contracts improperly, but she insisted that the defendant’s acceptance of benefits from those engaged in highly profitable oil-and-gas dealings with government entities was inappropriate given her position.
The prosecutor accused the second defendant, Ayinde, of bribing Alison-Madueke between 2012 and 2014 and also bribing the then-managing director of the state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu, who is also not on trial, in 2015.
Healy alleged that, after Jonathan was replaced as president by Muhammadu Buhari in 2015, Ayinde paid a “substantial bribe” to Kachikwu to ensure that her friend remained employed at NNPC.
In 2023, the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) formally charged Alison-Madueke, alleging she took bribes over four years from 2011 to 2015, during which she held considerable power in Nigeria’s oil industry.
NCA had claimed, “We suspect Diezani Alison-Madueke abused her power in Nigeria and accepted financial rewards for awarding multi-million-pound contracts.”
