At London’s Southwark Crown Court this week, 65-year-old former Nigerian oil minister Diezani Alison-Madueke has issued a categorical denial of all bribery charges against her, pushing back against prosecution claims that she accepted luxury gifts and funded stays in high-end UK properties in exchange for awarding lucrative government oil contracts.
Prosecutors allege that a group of Nigerian businessmen covered millions of pounds in lavish spending for Alison-Madueke, including more than £2 million in purchases at London’s iconic luxury department store Harrods, and £4.6 million in renovation works for multiple upscale properties across London and Buckinghamshire. The charges outline that the ex-minister gained access to a grand countryside estate in Buckinghamshire, a £2.8 million private residence in central London’s Marylebone, and multiple multi-million-pound properties overlooking Regent’s Park, all funded by business figures seeking favorable contract decisions from her office.
But in her testimony to the court on Monday, Alison-Madueke said that all costs incurred during her official stays in the UK were ultimately reimbursed by Nigeria’s state-owned national oil corporation, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC). She explained that NNPC’s disjointed financial system prompted the creation of a dedicated London-based service firm to handle logistics for her official work in the UK, covering routine costs such as hotel accommodation and chauffeured transport.
“I can state categorically that at no point did I ask for, take or receive a bribe of any sort from these persons and did not abuse my office,” Alison-Madueke told the court. “I always sought to act impartially.”
The court heard context for Alison-Madueke’s stays in UK properties: one 2011 Christmas stay at a Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire home was arranged after her ex-husband required emergency hospital treatment that prevented the pair from flying back to Nigeria, and the ex-minister said she played no role in booking the accommodation. A second two-week stay at the same property was for a work project: Alison-Madueke and 10 to 12 other Nigerian officials gathered there to compile a book highlighting the Nigerian president’s work advancing women’s issues in the country. She added that the Regent’s Park property was repurposed for confidential official meetings, while another property cited in the charges was fully gutted for renovations and uninhabitable when she visited it.
Regarding past stays at two St John’s Wood apartments, where rent was covered by Nigerian businessman Kolawole Aluko (one of the business figures linked to the case who is not standing trial), Alison-Madueke noted that the arrangement was far more cost-effective than continuing to book £2,000-per-night suites at luxury London hotels such as The Savoy and The Dorchester. She also told the court she had no knowledge at the time that one of her chauffeurs had delivered £100,000 in cash to an address linked to her, stressing the sum was unrelated to her work or personal affairs.
The trial also heard details of Alison-Madueke’s early career, which saw her rise quickly through the ranks at oil giant Shell to become the first female senior executive in the company’s Nigerian operation. She told the court she had originally been reluctant to join Shell, after her father — a senior company employee and tribal leader — launched an unsuccessful legal case against the multinational over what he described as apartheid-style employment practices in West Africa. Alison-Madueke added that even when she took on the role, she remained critical of Shell’s response to devastating oil spills in her home region of the Niger Delta, saying the company had failed to adequately repair the environmental damage it caused.
Alison-Madueke also outlined the extreme personal risks she faced as a woman leading Nigeria’s oil sector in what she described as a deeply patriarchal society. She told the court she faced constant credible kidnap threats, and that members of her own family had already been abducted by extremist groups. Beyond her role as Nigerian oil minister, Alison-Madueke made history in 2015 when she became the first woman elected to lead the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), the global cartel that coordinates crude oil production levels to influence global energy markets.
Alison-Madueke currently faces five counts of accepting bribes and one count of conspiracy to commit bribery, all of which she denies. Two other defendants are also on trial alongside her: 54-year-old oil industry executive Olatimbo Ayinde, who denies one count of bribery and one count of bribing a foreign public official, and 69-year-old Doye Agama, Alison-Madueke’s brother and a former archbishop, who denies a single charge of conspiracy to commit bribery. The trial is ongoing at Southwark Crown Court.