Former Minister of Petroleum Diezani Alison-Madueke has been acquitted of six bribery counts on Wednesday after a high-profile corruption trial at Southwark Crown Court, London.
Alison-Madueke, who served as minister under former President Goodluck Jonathan from 2010 to 2015, was charged with five charges of receiving bribes and one count of conspiracy to commit bribery.
Alison-Madueke denied the charges.
Prosecutors claimed that Alison-Madueke, 65, was provided “a life of luxury” in London by oil and gas industry officials looking for big contracts in Nigeria, which has long suffered with corruption and incompetence.
However, the former minister, who also briefly served as president of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, claimed she never accepted bribes and had no actual influence over the allocation of government contracts.
After more than 46 hours of deliberation, a jury at Southwark Crown Court in London acquitted Alison-Madueke of all six charges.
According to Reuters, the not-guilty finding is a setback for British authorities, who have been probing corruption claims against her for almost a decade.
Diezani was on trial with oil industry executive Olatimbo Ayinde, 54, who was charged with one allegation of bribery pertaining to Diezani and another crime of bribery of a foreign public official.
Her brother, Doye Agama, 69, was also charged with conspiracy to commit bribery for suspected payments to Agama’s church.
Ayinde and Agama denied the charges and were acquitted by the jury.
