Diezani Alison-Madueke, the former minister of petroleum resources, has been acquitted of all six bribery charges by the Southwark Crown Court in London after hours of deliberation on Wednesday, bringing an end to what she described as years of unjust vilification.
The former minister’s trial began in January after the UK government charged her in August 2023 over an alleged £100,000 bribe, with prosecutors accusing her of accepting bribes in the form of luxury goods and use of properties from industry figures in return for awarding oil and gas contracts during her time in office. She was first arrested in the UK in October 2015.
Reacting to the verdict in a video, Alison Madueke thanked God and all those who stood by her during the trial, describing the experience as very arduous and long, almost 11 years, and traumatic not just for her but for her family, friends, and her 93-year-old mother in Port Harcourt.
In a statement issued by her representative, Bolouere Opukiri, she said a decade of unrelenting and unjust vilification, condemnation, and scrutiny has finally concluded, and she would speak about the events of the past decade and her future plans in due course.
In January 2025, Nigeria and the United States entered into an asset repatriation agreement for the return of $52.88 million in funds known as the Galactica assets, which investigators had linked to former Petroleum Minister Diezani Alison-Madueke. Under the terms of the agreement, the recovered funds were to be returned to Nigeria and channelled towards specified development projects.
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