BY CHIJIOKE CHARLES
Former Petroleum Minister Diezani Alison-Madueke, who served between 2010 and 2015, is facing trial on six charges, including accepting bribes and conspiracy to commit bribery, allegations she has denied.
According to Channels TV, the former OPEC president Diezani Alison-Madueke arrives to Westminster Magistratesโ Court in London on October 2, 2023.
The first woman president of OPEC and Nigeriaโs former oil minister, Diezani Alison-Madueke, was cleared of bribery charges in a UK trial Wednesday, her defence lawyers said in a statement.
โDiezani Alison-Madueke was cleared of six charges of bribery at Southwark Crown Court on 17 June 2026, after a five-month trial,โ defence lawyer Jonathan Laidlaw said in a press release.
The trial was brought by the UKโs National Crime Agency (NCA), which targets serious organised and international crime, after a years-long investigation concerning alleged offences between 2011 and 2015.
Laidlaw told the jury at the London court in January that there was a โgross delayโ in the charges being brought, resulting in โa great deal of material which would have established her innocenceโ being denied.
Afrilensnews earlier reported that Alison-Madueke had been accused of accepting โfinancial or other advantagesโ from individuals linked to two energy companies that had secured contracts with Nigeriaโs state-owned petroleum corporation when she was the countryโs oil minister.
Alison-Madueke had also been accused by prosecutors of enjoying a โlife of luxuryโ funded by those interested in the lucrative oil and gas contracts.
Her lifestyle was described as involving chauffeur-driven cars, a private jet flight to Nigeria, and refurbishment work and staff costs at several London properties.
Her defence maintained that records proving her innocence had โdisappearedโ and that she could no longer access papers at home in Nigeria as British police had retained her passport since her first arrest 11 years ago.
President of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) between 2014 and 2015, Alison-Madueke has been involved in numerous legal cases worldwide, including in the United States.
She has been on bail in Britain since she was first arrested in October 2015. In 2023, she was formally charged with accepting bribes, which she denied.
She had a British address at the time of the alleged offences, according to the prosecution.
