KEY POINTS
- A London jury cleared Diezani Alison-Madueke of all six bribery charges after 46 hours of deliberation.
- Alison-Madueke was the first woman to chair OPEC and served as Nigeria’s petroleum minister from 2010 to 2015.
- She still faces separate EFCC proceedings in Nigeria despite her full acquittal at Southwark Crown Court.
Diezani Alison-Madueke, Nigeria’s former petroleum minister, was cleared of all bribery charges by a London jury, ending a trial that ran for five months.
A jury at Southwark Crown Court on Wednesday found her not guilty on five counts of accepting bribes and one count of conspiracy to commit bribery tied to her time in office. The jurors deliberated for more than 46 hours before reaching their verdict.
Alison-Madueke, 65, led the petroleum ministry in Africa’s biggest oil producer from 2010 to 2015 under then-President Goodluck Jonathan, and chaired the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries in 2014 to 2015, the first woman to do so.
Prosecutors had alleged that figures in the oil and gas industry bankrolled a life of luxury for her in the UK while seeking lucrative contracts from Nigeria’s state oil company between 2011 and 2015. The benefits described in court included London-area property, private travel, chauffeured cars and luxury goods, channeled through intermediaries.
Alison-Madueke denied wrongdoing throughout, saying she never accepted bribes and held no real sway over how government contracts were awarded. Her lawyers argued her role in the process was largely procedural.
The case was brought by the UK’s National Crime Agency, which authorized charges in 2023 and had described the prosecution as a milestone in a long-running international corruption investigation. She had been on bail and first came under scrutiny following her arrest in London in 2015.
What the verdict does not erase
The not-guilty verdicts close an eleven-year chapter that began with her departure from government when President Jonathan lost the 2015 election. Her brother Doye Agama and a businessman named Ayinde were also acquitted on related charges.
Her lawyer said in a statement that she was grateful to the jury, having “unnecessarily endured the ordeal of being separated from her family over 11 years.” “She is finally allowed to resume her private and public life with her reputation restored and enhanced,” the statement said.
Alison-Madueke still faces separate legal proceedings in Nigeria, where courts seized properties linked to her in 2017 and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has pending cases. In January 2025, Nigeria and the United States signed an asset return agreement for $52.88 million recovered from assets linked to her.
