2nd October, 2023
Diezani Alison-Madueke, Nigeria’s former Minister of Petroleum, has been arraigned in a UK Court charged with bribery allegations.
She appeared at the Westminster Magistrates Court on Monday, eight years after she was first given a bail.
Diezani was alleged by the UK police in August to have benefitted from at least £100,000 in cash, chauffeur driven cars, flights on private jets, luxury holidays for her family, and the use of multiple London properties.
She has been charged receiving bribes in the form of cash, luxury goods, flights on private jets and the use of high-end properties in Britain in return for awarding oil contracts.
The charges against her, read out in court, all related to events alleged to have taken place in London during her time as a minister.
As Daily Mail reported, prosecutor Andy Young said she was alleged to have accepted a wide range of advantages in cash and in kind from people who wanted to receive or continue to receive the award of oil contracts which he said were worth billions of dollars in total.
The advantages included a delivery of 100,000 pounds ($121,620) in cash, the payment of private school fees for her son, and the use and refurbishment of several luxurious properties in London and in the English countryside.
They also included the use of a Range Rover car, payment of bills for chauffeur-driven cars, furniture, and purchases from the upmarket London department store Harrods and from Vincenzo Caffarella, which sells Italian decorative arts and antiques.
Alison-Madueke was Nigeria’s minister for petroleum resources between 2010 and 2015, during the administration of former president Goodluck Jonathan.
In court today, she spoke only to give her name, date of birth and address, according to Reuters.
She was not asked to formally enter a plea, although her lawyer Mark Bowen told the court she would be pleading not guilty.
Diezani is the second high-profile Nigerian politician to face prosecution in Britain in recent years, following James Ibori, a former state governor who was convicted of fraud and money-laundering in 2012 and received a 13-year jail sentence.
Systemic corruption in Nigeria’s oil sector is causing the nation to lose billions of dollars to oil thieves and corrupt top government officials.
Diezani was the first woman to hold the position of Minister of Petroleum Resources in Nigeria, and in October 2010 she became the first woman to head a country delegation at the semi-annual OPEC conference.
She was also the first female Minister of Transportation, and the first woman to be appointed to the board of Shell Petroleum Development Company Nigeria. On 27 November 2014, she was elected as the first female President of OPEC.
She has been accused of awarding multi-billion Naira contracts without recourse to due process and of recklessly spending government funds as well as wasting billions of naira inappropriately on private jets.
In October 2009, the Senate of Nigeria indicted Diezani Alison-Madueke and recommended prosecution for the transfer of N1.2 billion naira into the private account of a toll company without due process and in breach of concession agreement.
On 2 October 2015, Reuters reported that Alison-Madueke was arrested by the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) in London, along with four other people on suspicion of bribery and corruption offences. However, a spokesperson for the police denied having any knowledge of the incident. Her family and the Nigerian Government confirmed that she had been arrested in London, although the NCA declined to comment on the case.
Also in Nigeria, her home in Asokoro, Abuja was raided and sealed by anti-corruption agents of the Nigerian Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, a few hours after her alleged arrest in London.
On 28 August 2017, a Nigerian federal court seized 7.6 billion naira ($21 million) from bank accounts linked to Alison-Madueke.
In 2017, the US Justice Department’s kleptocracy team seized $145 million worth of assets that had been purchased “for the benefit of” Ms. Alison-Madueke. Among the assets were a $50 million apartment in New York, properties in California, and an $80 million yacht; Galactica Star.
As part of the Pandora Papers leak in 2021, Alison-Madueke was accused of accepting $17 million in gifts and property from three Nigerian oil businessmen in exchange for favors as part of her role as Federal Minister of Petroleum Resources.