Diezani: UK Law Enforcement Destroyed My Reputation and Integrity

Following her acquittal of bribery charges in a London court, Diezani Alison-Madueke, former minister of petroleum resources, has accused British authorities of wrecking her reputation and integrity.

Speaking to the BBC, Alison-Madueke said the 13-year investigation by the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) had taken a significant toll on her life and could have been conducted differently, calling it “painful and traumatic”.

“I’ve not been allowed to travel. I’ve not been allowed to work. They destroyed my reputation and my integrity,” she said.

“When your freedom is taken away from you…it has a very deep impact upon you psychologically.”

The former minister claimed that she was targeted by UK authorities because she was “low-hanging fruit”.

Alison-Madueke said the NCA ignored the work she did to counter corruption in the oil industry and the fact she had made “powerful enemies” in Nigeria.

“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.

The former minister said the NCA should have “taken a step back and looked with a little more depth at the truth of the situation on the ground”.

‘AUTHORITIES TOOK DOCUMENTS THAT COULD HAVE CLEARED ME’

Alison-Madueke said she had always maintained her innocence because she knew she had “never done anything nefarious” or committed any of the “heinous things” alleged by investigators.

The former minister’s trial began in January after the UK government charged her in August 2023 over an alleged £100,000 bribe.

Prosecutors accused the former minister of accepting bribes in the form of luxury goods and use of high-level properties from industry figures in return for awarding multi-million-pound oil and gas contracts during her time in office.

But Alison-Madueke told the BBC that boxes of receipts showing the oil tycoons had been reimbursed for payments made on her behalf went missing in Nigeria.

“Those items were taken away by our intelligence forces from my home in Abuja in 2015,” she said, adding that she had no idea what happened to them.

Former President Goodluck Jonathan, who appointed Alison-Madueke, informed the court through a written statement that it was not unusual for third parties to make payments on behalf of ministers on overseas duties.

Asked who she holds responsible for the failings in the case against her, Alison-Madueke said: “There’s a bit of blame everywhere”.

“The Nigerian authorities need to look into the processes and practices that they deploy in these cases,” she added.

The former minister was entangled in the bribery allegations, along with Olatimbo Ayinde, an oil executive, and Doye Agama, her brother who is an archbishop in a Pentecostal church in Manchester.

Ayinde and Agama were also cleared.

In 2023, the US justice department said they recovered $53 million worth of assets seized from two of the oil tycoons named in this trial, adding that “Alison-Madueke used her influence to steer lucrative oil contracts” to companies owned by the men.

“I was never given the opportunity to fight that because I wasn’t even charged,” Alison-Madueke told the BBC.

She said the contracts were subject to “the exact due process that they are supposed to go through”.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had said it also recovered about $153 million and more than 80 properties from the former minister in 2022.

Asked about this, she replied: “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”.

After her acquittal, Alison-Madueke said she would speak about the events of the past decade and her future plans “in due course”.