{"id":112942,"date":"2026-01-28T03:04:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T03:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=112942"},"modified":"2026-01-28T03:04:00","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T03:04:00","slug":"ex-nigeria-oil-minister-in-bribery-trial-spent-2m-at-harrods-court-hears","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=112942","title":{"rendered":"Ex-Nigeria oil minister in bribery trial spent \u00a32m at Harrods, court hears"},"content":{"rendered":"
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More than \u00a32m was spent at Harrods on behalf of a then-Nigerian oil minister accused of accepting bribes from industry figures interested in government contracts, a court in London has heard.<\/p>\n

Diezani Alison-Madueke, 65, is alleged to have been provided with \u201ca life of luxury in the United Kingdom\u201d, including access to multimillion-pound properties, a chauffeur-driven car, travel by private jet, and \u00a3100,000 in cash.<\/p>\n

Other benefits she allegedly received included \u00a34.6m spent on refurbishing properties in London and Buckinghamshire, the trial at Southwark Crown Court was told.<\/p>\n

She denies five counts of accepting bribes and a charge of conspiracy to commit bribery.<\/p>\n

Alison-Madueke was minister of petroleum resources between 2010 and 2015 under then-President Goodluck Jonathan.<\/p>\n

Jurors were told that over \u00a32m was spent on behalf of Alison-Madueke at Harrods using the payment cards of Nigerian businessman Kolawole Aluko and the debit card of his company Tenka Limited.<\/p>\n

The defendant had her own personal shopper at the store, only available to Harrods Rewards Black Tier members who must spend over \u00a310,000 a year, the court heard.<\/p>\n

Jurors were also told she lived some of the time in the UK where she was provided with a housekeeper, nanny, gardener and window cleaner.<\/p>\n

The salaries and other running costs were paid for by the owners of energy companies who had lucrative contracts with the state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, the court was told.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis case is about bribery in relation to the oil and gas industry in Nigeria during the period 2011 to 2015,\u201d said Alexandra Healy KC, prosecuting.<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring that time, those who were interested in the award and retention of lucrative oil and gas contracts with the state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation or its subsidiaries, the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company and the Pipelines Product Marketing Company, provided significant financial or other advantages to Alison-Madueke.\u201d<\/p>\n

Healy added: \u201cIt might seem strange to be dealing here in the UK with a case that concerns bribery in relation to the Nigerian oil and gas industry.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe live in a global society. Bribery and corruption undermine the proper functioning of the global market.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is an important public interest in ensuring that conduct in our country does not further corruption in another country.\u201d<\/p>\n

The court heard Alison-Madueke had her own personal shopper at Harrods<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Jurors were also shown photographs of a property called The Falls in Gerrard\u2019s Cross, Buckinghamshire, which was bought in 2010 by Nigerian businessman Olajide Omokore, owner of Atlantic Energy.<\/p>\n

From late 2011, Alison-Madueke allegedly had exclusive use of the house, which has a cinema room. The court heard she stayed there three or four times over two years, and spent six weeks at the property writing a book about the president of Nigeria.<\/p>\n

She was assisted by a chef and the driver of a car whose role included dropping off shopping for Alison-Madueke, whom he knew as \u201cHM\u201d \u2013 short for honourable minister.<\/p>\n

It was said that this, along with \u00a3300,000 worth of refurbishment, was paid for by Tenka Limited. The court was told Aluko also had contracts with state-owned entities that were in the process of securing new oil contracts.<\/p>\n

The court heard that between May 2011 and January 2014, \u00a3500,000 was also paid in rent for two flats in a block in central London where Alison-Madueke and her mother lived.<\/p>\n

Records seized at the Tenka offices in Nigeria show the company settled the bill, it was claimed.<\/p>\n

Alison-Madueke sat in the dock besides oil industry executive Olatimbo Ayinde, 54, who is charged with one count of bribery relating to Alison-Madueke and a separate count of bribery of a foreign public official.<\/p>\n

Alison-Madueke\u2019s brother, former archbishop Doye Agama, 69, is charged with conspiracy to commit bribery and joined the trial by video link for medical reasons.<\/p>\n

Ayinde and Agama also deny the charges against them.<\/p>\n

The trial \u2013 expected to last about 12 weeks \u2013 continues.<\/p>\n

Oil plays a significant role in Nigeria\u2019s economy, but the population at large has not seen the benefits.<\/p>\n

It is one of the 13 members of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec), set up to deal with the worldwide supply of oil and its price.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Ex-NigeriaMore than \u00a32m was spent at Harrods on behalf of a then-Nigerian oil minister accused of accepting bribes from industry figures interested in government contracts, a court in London has heard.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_2277560469115098_106292521332774":"","twitter_aToxNzczMzI3Njk4OTg4ODUxMjAxOw==_1773327698988851200":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1972,11025,16034,16035,2047,1300,10,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-112942","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-africa","category-bribery","category-former-oil-minister","category-harrods","category-hp-news-9","category-nigeria","category-politics","category-popular"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112942","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=112942"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112942\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=112942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=112942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=112942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}