Diezani Alison-Madueke, Nigeria’s former Minister of Petroleum Resources and the first female president of OPEC, has been acquitted of bribery charges in the United Kingdom.
Her defence team confirmed that on 17 June 2026, the Southwark Crown Court cleared her of six counts of bribery following a five-month trial.
“The court has acquitted Diezani Alison-Madueke of all six charges of bribery after a lengthy trial,” defence lawyer Jonathan Laidlaw stated in a press release.
The case was brought by the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA), which investigates serious organised and international crime, after a multi-year probe into alleged offences said to have occurred between 2011 and 2015.
Laidlaw told the jury at the London court in January that there was a “gross delay” in the charges being brought, resulting in “a great deal of material which would have established her innocence” being denied.
She had been accused of accepting “financial or other advantages” from individuals linked to two energy companies that had secured contracts with Nigeria’s state-owned petroleum corporation when she was the country’s oil minister.
Alison-Madueke had also been accused by prosecutors of enjoying a “life of luxury” 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 “disappeared” 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.
AFP
