Diezani claims her prosecution for bribery and corruption was nothing but unjust vilification

FORMER Nigerian petroleum minister Diezani Alison-Madueke reacted to her acquittal by London's Southwark Crown yesterday on charges of bribery and corruption describing her prosecution as nothing more than relentless and unjust vilification.

Ms Alison-Madueke, 65, served as Nigeria's petroleum minister between 2010 and 2015 under President Goodluck Jonathan. Upon leaving office, she immediately fled to the UK but was subsequently arrested and charged with accepting bribes from oil executives in exchange for lucrative contracts while in office.

Since leaving office and going into exile in the UK, Ms Alison-Madueke has been the subject of numerous investigations in Nigeria and internationally. She was asked to forfeit UK properties worth over £11m and was forced to surrender about N7.6bn ($17.4m) hidden in a Nigerian bank to the federal government.

In July 2019, Diezani had jewellery worth $40m, including a customised gold iPhone, seized from her after a Lagos federal high court ordered their forfeiture to the federal government. Then in 2023, Ms Alison-Madueke  was arraigned before the a London high court charged with fresh bribery allegations in addition to the 13-counts bordering on money laundering that she is already facing.

Also, that year, Diezani appeared before the Westminster Magistrates’ Court in London, over an alleged £100,000 bribe. District judge, Michael Snow, granted her bail for a sum of £70,000 under terms which included an 11pm to 6am curfew, an electronic tag to be worn by her at all times and the sum of £70,000 to be paid before she could leave the court building.

Yesterday, however, Ms Alison-Madueke got a huge bit of respite, when a jury at Southwark Crown Court acquitted her all bribery and corruption charges after 46 hours of deliberation. It brought about an end to a high-profile five-month trial and a decade-long investigation by the UK’s National Crime Agency.

Speaking after the verdict, an emotional Alison-Madueke said: "I did my job to the best of my ability. I am just thankful to God. It's been a very, very arduous and long, almost 11-year journey. It has been traumatic, not just for me but for my family, my friends, and all those who have stayed and supported me.

"For my 93-year-old mother in Port Harcourt, for my son, and for all those who love us, it has been a hard journey. But I tell you this: God will always do as God wills and God will be God."

A one-time Opec president, Ms Alison-Madueke added that the verdict finally ends a decade of relentless and unjust vilification. British prosecutors had argued that executives who she awarded contracts to  funded a luxury lifestyle for her in London, pointing to items including a £25,000 Chanel handbag, a £22,000 designer rug, private jet flights, chauffeured cars and the use of high-end properties

However, the defence successfully argued that these perks were not bribes. Ms Alison-Madueke testified that because her Nigerian credit cards often failed abroad, the executives had simply given her short-term loans.

She maintained that every single expense, flight and property cost was fully paid back using her own family funds and official state allocations. In summing up, the judge instructed the jury that if the defence's claims of full reimbursement could reasonably be true, the actions could not be legally defined as corruption.