KEY POINTS
- A London jury cleared former petroleum minister Diezani Alison-Madueke of five bribery counts and one conspiracy charge.
- Prosecutors alleged oil and gas figures funded a luxury UK lifestyle for her while seeking Nigerian contracts.
- The verdict closes an eleven-year case brought by the UK’s National Crime Agency after her 2015 arrest.
Diezani Alison-Madueke, Nigeria’s former petroleum minister, was cleared of all bribery charges by a London jury, ending a trial that ran for five months.
A jury at Southwark Crown Court on Wednesday found her not guilty on five counts of accepting bribes and one count of conspiracy to commit bribery tied to her time in office. The jurors deliberated for more than 46 hours before reaching their verdict.
Alison-Madueke, 65, led the petroleum ministry in Africa’s biggest oil producer from 2010 to 2015 under then-President Goodluck Jonathan, and chaired the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries in 2014-2015 — the first woman to do so.
The acquittal, the counts, her tenure and OPEC role
Prosecutors had alleged that figures in the oil and gas industry bankrolled a life of luxury for her in the UK while seeking lucrative contracts from Nigeria’s state oil company between 2011 and 2015. The benefits described in court included London-area property, private travel, chauffeured cars and luxury goods, channeled through intermediaries.
Alison-Madueke denied wrongdoing throughout, saying she never accepted bribes and held no real sway over how government contracts were awarded. Her lawyers argued her role in the process was largely procedural.
The case was brought by the UK’s National Crime Agency, which authorized charges in 2023 and had described the prosecution as a milestone in a long-running international corruption investigation. She had been on bail and first came under scrutiny following her arrest in London in 2015.
The not-guilty verdicts close an eleven-year chapter spanning multiple jurisdictions, and amount to a full acquittal for one of the most prominent figures in global energy.
