Former Nigerian oil minister Diezani Allison-Madueke was found not guilty of six bribery charges by a London jury on Wednesday, after a rare corruption trial of a high-profile former energy official.
The verdicts are a major blow to British authorities, who began their investigation into corruption allegations against Allison-Madueke more than a decade ago.
Allison-Madueke, the first woman to be Nigeria’s minister for petroleum resources between 2010 and 2015 under then-President Goodluck Jonathan, stood trial charged with five counts of accepting bribes and a charge of conspiracy to commit bribery.
Prosecutors alleged Allison-Madueke, 65, was given “a life of luxury” in London from oil and gas industry figures seeking lucrative contracts in Nigeria, which has long grappled with mismanagement and corruption.
But the former minister, who also briefly served as president of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and had long faced allegations of corruption, said she never took any bribes and had no real influence over the awarding of contracts.
Her lawyers argued the spending cited by the prosecution was reimbursed, by the Nigerian state for official business or Allison-Madueke herself for personal expenses, and she gave evidence that she was thought of as “Madame Due Process”.
Following the trial at London’s Southwark Crown Court that began in January, Allison-Madueke was acquitted after more than 46 hours of jury deliberation.
[quote]Allison-Madueke’s 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”.
