Former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke, has accused British authorities of destroying her reputation and integrity after she was cleared of bribery charges in a London court, describing the 13-year investigation into her activities as “painful and traumatic”.
In an interview with the BBC, the former minister said the prolonged probe by the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) had severely affected her life, restricting her freedom, career and ability to travel. “I’ve not been allowed to travel. I’ve not been allowed to work. They destroyed my reputation and my integrity,” Alison-Madueke said. “When your freedom is taken away from you, no matter how you try to handle it, it has a very deep impact upon you psychologically.”
Alison-Madueke, who made history as Nigeria’s first female Minister of Petroleum Resources and the first female President of OPEC, claimed she was unfairly targeted and suggested that her prominence made her an easy target for investigators. “The NCA saw me as low-hanging fruit,” she said.
The former minister argued that investigators failed to properly examine the political and institutional realities surrounding her time in office, including her efforts to tackle corruption in Nigeria’s oil sector and the enemies she said she made in the process.
“I was the first female to enter this sort of position as petroleum minister and as head of OPEC in a very misogynistic society,” she said. “They should have taken a step back and looked with a little more depth at the truth of the situation on the ground.”
Alison-Madueke maintained that she had always known she was innocent of the allegations brought against her. “I have always maintained my innocence because I knew I had never done anything nefarious and had never committed any of the heinous things that were alleged,” she said.
Her trial began in January after UK prosecutors charged her in August 2023 over allegations that she accepted bribes in the form of luxury goods and access to high-end properties from oil industry figures in exchange for awarding lucrative oil and gas contracts during her tenure as minister.
However, Alison-Madueke claimed that evidence which could have supported her defence disappeared after being seized from her Abuja residence in 2015. “Those items were taken away by our intelligence forces from my home in Abuja in 2015,” she said, referring to boxes of receipts she said showed that oil businessmen had been reimbursed for payments made on her behalf. “I have no idea what happened to them.”
Former President Goodluck Jonathan, who appointed Alison-Madueke as petroleum minister, told the court in a written statement that it was not unusual for third parties to make payments on behalf of ministers undertaking official duties abroad.
When asked who should be held responsible for the circumstances that led to the case, Alison-Madueke said accountability was shared. “There’s a bit of blame everywhere,” she said. “The Nigerian authorities need to look into the processes and practices that they deploy in these cases.” The former minister faced the allegations alongside oil executive Olatimbo Ayinde and her brother, Doye Agama, an archbishop based in Manchester. Both men were also cleared.
Despite her acquittal, Alison-Madueke continues to face questions over allegations raised in other jurisdictions. In 2023, the US Department of Justice announced the recovery of approximately $53 million in assets linked to two oil businessmen involved in the case, alleging that Alison-Madueke used her influence to direct lucrative contracts to their companies. Responding to those claims, she told the BBC: “I was never given the opportunity to fight that because I wasn’t even charged.”
She insisted that the contracts in question followed established procedures. “The contracts were subjected to the exact due process that they were supposed to go through,” she said. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has also previously stated that it recovered about $153 million and more than 80 properties allegedly linked to the former minister.
Asked about those recoveries, Alison-Madueke said: “The assets that have been forfeited were not actually traced directly to me. I don’t know what has happened to these matters at all. It’s now that I’ll have the freedom to find out what exactly has gone on there.”
Following her acquittal, the former minister said she intends to speak more extensively about the events of the last decade and her plans for the future. “I will speak about what has happened over the past 10 years and what comes next in due course,” she said.
