Former Nigerian oil minister Diezani Alison-Madueke was on Wednesday cleared of six bribery-related charges following a lengthy trial in London.
This ruling marks a significant setback for British authorities who had pursued corruption allegations against her for more than a decade.
Alison-Madueke, who served as Nigeria’s minister of petroleum resources between 2010 and 2015 under former President Goodluck Jonathan, had faced five counts of accepting bribes and one count of conspiracy to commit bribery.
Prosecutors alleged she received luxury benefits from oil and gas executives seeking access to lucrative contracts in Nigeria. The former minister denied the allegations, arguing she neither accepted bribes nor exercised direct influence over the awarding of contracts.
Her defence team said expenses cited by prosecutors were either reimbursed by the Nigerian government for official duties or paid personally by Alison-Madueke.
After more than 46 hours of deliberation, jurors at London’s Southwark Crown Court returned unanimous not-guilty verdicts on all counts. Her lawyer said Alison-Madueke was grateful to the jury after enduring more than a decade of investigations and legal proceedings.
The verdict follows years of scrutiny by British and U.S. authorities over alleged corruption linked to Nigeria’s oil sector. Also acquitted were oil executive Olatimbo Ayinde and Alison-Madueke’s brother, Doye Agama, who had both denied separate bribery-related charges connected to the case.