Diezani Alison-Madueke, Nigeria’s former minister of petroleum resources, has appeared before the Southwark Crown Court in London, United Kingdom, for the preliminary hearing of her trial premised on bribery charges.
The case was listed on the cause list for Court 8 before
Justice Thornton on Monday.
Alison-Madueke was in court for the preliminary hearing
ahead of her full trial scheduled to commence on January 26, 2026.
In August 2023, the ex-minister was charged by the UK
government over an alleged £100,000 bribe.
The UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) said they suspected
Diezani had accepted bribes in return for awarding multi-million-pound oil and
gas contracts during her stint in office.
Alison-Madueke was minister of petroleum resources from 2010
to 2015 during the Goodluck Jonathan administration. She was also elected
president of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in 2014.
In October 2023, Alison-Madueke was granted bail bail in the
sum of £70,000.
The Westminster magistrates court had imposed other
conditions on Alison-Madueke after deeming her “a flight risk”.
The conditions included an 11pm to 6am curfew, an electronic
tag to be worn at all times, and a £70,000 surety to be paid before she could
leave the court building.
In January 2025, the Nigerian government and United States
signed an asset return agreement on $52.88 million recovered from the Galactica
assets linked to Alison-Madueke.
The US government had said Alison-Madueke and her associates
purchased luxury real estate in California and New York as well as the
Galactica Star, a 65-metre superyacht, using “proceeds of those illicitly
awarded contracts”.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had also
gone after assets linked to the former government official in Nigeria.
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