Diezani Alison-Madueke, former minister of petroleum resources, has accused UK authorities of damaging her character after a botched corruption prosecution that lasted more than a decade.
Alison-Madueke, who was acquitted by a jury on Wednesday at Southwark Crown Court in London, made the statements during a BBC interview on Friday.
The former minister was charged with five counts of taking bribes and conspiracy to commit bribery after a 13-year investigation by the UK’s National Crime Agency.
Following her acquittal, Alison-Madueke described the investigation and prosecution as “painful and traumatic.”
“I’ve not been allowed to travel. I’ve not been allowed to work. They destroyed my reputation and my integrity,” she told the BBC.
Alison-Madueke, who served as Nigeria’s petroleum minister between 2010 and 2015 and was the first female president of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, said the case had taken a significant psychological toll on her.
“When your freedom is taken away from you, it has a very deep impact upon you psychologically.
“I knew that I had never done anything nefarious and I had never done any of the heinous things I was being accused of doing,” she said.
Alison-Madueke was initially detained in 2015, but she was not charged until 2023.
Prosecutors said that she received advantages from oil businesses with government contracts, such as expensive products, chauffeured limousines, and access to high-value houses in the United Kingdom.
During the interview, she stated that documents that could have helped her defense had gone lost in Nigeria.
According to her, the documents contained invoices indicating that some payments made on her behalf had been repaid.
“Those items were taken away by our intelligence forces” from her Abuja residence in 2015, she said.
She also berated both Nigerian and British authorities over the handling of the case.
“There’s a bit of blame everywhere.
“The Nigerian authorities need to look into the processes and practices that they deploy in these cases,” Alison-Madueke said.
She also stated that foreign law enforcement agencies should use more prudence when examining politically sensitive situations.
“The long arm of the law when you go into other countries, particularly in politically motivated cases, needs to have a lot more sensitivity,” she said.
She also suggested that she may have been targeted because of her position and influence within Nigeria’s oil industry.
“I was the first female to enter this sort of position as petroleum minister and as head of OPEC in a very misogynistic society,” she said.
Alison-Madueke also addressed past asset recovery actions involving her.
In 2023, the US Department of Justice reported the recovery of approximately $53 million in assets related to two oil businessmen named in the UK trial.
The former minister claimed she was never given the opportunity to contest the claims because she had not been charged with them.
“I was never given the opportunity to fight that because I wasn’t even charged,” she said.
She also questioned allegations that Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission had recovered assets and properties related to her.
“The assets that have been forfeited were not actually traced directly to me.
“I don’t know what has happened to these matters at all. It’s now that I’ll have the freedom to find out what exactly has gone on there,” she said.
Alison-Madueke’s brother, Doye Agamas, and oil industry executive Olatimbo Ayinde were also acquitted in the UK trial.
