British prosecutors on Tuesday accused Diezani Alison-Madueke, the first woman president of OPEC, of enjoying a “life of luxury” funded by bribes while serving as Nigeria’s oil minister.
The 65-year-old appeared in the dock at London’s Southwark Crown Court on the first day of her trial, facing multiple counts of bribery between 2011 and 2015 under then-president Goodluck Jonathan.
Prosecutors told the court that during her tenure, individuals seeking “lucrative oil and gas contracts” with Nigeria’s state-owned petroleum corporation provided Alison-Madueke with “significant financial or other advantages.”
“As a minister, she should not have accepted benefits from those doing, no doubt extremely lucrative, business in oil and gas with government-owned entities,” the prosecution said.
Alison-Madueke is accused of receiving financial benefits from individuals linked to Atlantic Energy and SPOG Petrochemical, both of which secured contracts with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) or its subsidiaries.
The charges allege she accepted cash payments of £100,000 ($137,000), chauffeur-driven cars, private jet flights to Nigeria, and refurbishment work and staff costs for several London properties. Other alleged bribes include school fees for her son, luxury goods from Harrods and Louis Vuitton, and additional private jet travel.
Alison-Madueke served as OPEC president from 2014 to 2015 and has faced legal proceedings in multiple countries, including the United States. In Nigeria, courts seized several of her properties valued at millions of dollars in 2017.
A spokesperson for Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) confirmed the agency has “some subsisting cases against her” but provided no further details.
She has been on bail in the UK since her initial arrest in London in October 2015 and has denied the charges. In 2023, she was formally charged with accepting bribes.
“We suspect Diezani Alison-Madueke abused her power in Nigeria and accepted financial rewards for awarding multi-million-pound contracts,” the UK National Crime Agency (NCA) said at the time.
Two others — her brother, Doye Agama, and Olatimbo Ayinde are also being prosecuted on bribery charges linked to the case. All three had a British address at the time of the alleged offences, according to prosecutors.
Judge Justine Thornton said she hoped the trial would conclude by April 24.
