The corruption trial of Diezani Alison-Madueke, former Nigerian Minister of Petroleum Resources and the first woman president of OPEC, is set to begin in London on Monday.
The 65-year-old faces five counts of receiving bribes and one count of conspiracy to conduct bribery, all stemming from her stint as Nigeria’s Minister for Petroleum Resources from 2010 to 2015, while Goodluck Jonathan was president.
Between 2011 and 2015, Alison-Madueke was accused of obtaining “financial or other advantages” from individuals affiliated with two energy groups.
These included the usage, refurbishing, and staffing charges of numerous London houses, furniture, chauffeur-driven cars, a private jet ticket to Nigeria, and £100,000 ($137,000) in cash.
Other charges say that she received bribes such as school tuition for her son, merchandise from high-end stores like Harrods and Louis Vuitton, and more private jet flights.
The accusation stated that accepting these bribes resulted in “improper performance” of her duties as oil minister.
She appeared in a London court last week for preliminary proceedings, which included technical issues and jury selection, prior to the trial, which is estimated to take 10 to 12 weeks.
Doye Agama and Olatimbo Ayinde are also facing bribery allegations related to the case.
Alison-Madueke has been on bail since her initial arrest in London in October 2015. She has disputed the charges filed against her.
According to the National Crime Agency (NCA), she will be legally accused of receiving bribes in 2023.
“We suspect Diezani Alison-Madueke abused her power in Nigeria and accepted financial rewards for awarding multi-million-pound contracts,” the NCA said at the time.
Earlier in 2023, the NCA, which targets international, severe, and organized crime, said it delivered evidence to US authorities, allowing them to seize $53.1 million in assets related to Alison-Madueke’s alleged misconduct.
They included premium real estate in California and New York, as well as the Galactica Star, a 65-meter (213-foot) superyacht, the US Department of Justice said on March 27.
Alison-Madueke, born in 1960 to a wealthy family in the oil capital of Port Harcourt, studied architecture in Britain and the United States before joining the Nigerian affiliate of the oil giant Shell.
She served in three significant government positions, first as transport minister under President Umaru Yar’Adua in 2007 and progressing to mines and steel development.
When Jonathan took over after Yar’Adua’s death, he named her as Minister of Petroleum Resources in April 2010. In 2014, she became OPEC’s first female president, a position she held for around a year.
