London
The corruption trial of Diezani Alison-Madueke, former Nigerian Minister of Petroleum Resources and the first female president of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), is set to begin in London on Monday, marking a major legal milestone in a case that has lasted nearly a decade.
Alison-Madueke, 65, faces five counts of accepting bribes and one count of conspiracy to commit bribery, linked to her time in office between 2010 and 2015, when Goodluck Jonathan was Nigeria’s president. She has denied all the charges.
Prosecutors allege that between 2011 and 2015, she accepted “financial or other advantages” from individuals connected to two energy companies in exchange for the improper performance of her duties as oil minister.
According to the indictment, the alleged benefits included the use and refurbishment of several London properties, payment of staff costs, luxury furniture, chauffeur-driven cars, a private jet flight to Nigeria, and £100,000 in cash. Other counts claim she received bribes such as school fees for her son, luxury goods from shops including Harrods and Louis Vuitton, and additional private jet flights.
The former minister appeared in a London court last week for preliminary proceedings, including technical matters and jury selection, ahead of the full trial, which is expected to last 10 to 12 weeks.
Two other individuals, Doye Agama and Olatimbo Ayinde, are also standing trial on bribery charges connected to the same case.
Alison-Madueke has been on bail since her arrest in London in October 2015. In 2023, the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) formally charged her with the offences.
At the time, the NCA said it believed she abused her position in Nigeria and accepted financial rewards in exchange for awarding multi-million-pound oil contracts. The agency also disclosed that it shared evidence with US authorities, leading to the recovery of $53.1 million in assets allegedly linked to the case.
Those assets included luxury properties in California and New York, as well as a 65-metre superyacht, Galactica Star, according to the US Department of Justice.
Born in Port Harcourt in 1960, Alison-Madueke studied architecture in Britain and the United States before joining Shell’s Nigerian subsidiary. She later entered politics, serving as transport minister in 2007 under the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, and later as minister of mines and steel development.
She was appointed minister of petroleum resources in April 2010, and in 2014 became the first woman to lead OPEC, a position she held for about a year.
The trial is expected to attract close attention in Nigeria and abroad, given its implications for accountability, asset recovery, and international cooperation in the fight against corruption.