{"id":82262,"date":"2026-01-28T08:57:17","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T08:57:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/?p=82262"},"modified":"2026-01-28T08:57:17","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T08:57:17","slug":"ex-minister-alison-madueke-denies-bribery-charges-as-london-trial-opens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/2026\/01\/28\/ex-minister-alison-madueke-denies-bribery-charges-as-london-trial-opens\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-Minister Alison-Madueke Denies Bribery Charges as London Trial Opens"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Huldah Shado<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Former Nigerian petroleum minister, Diezani Alison-Madueke, on Tuesday pleaded not guilty to multiple bribery charges as her trial began at Southwark Crown Court in London, with British prosecutors alleging she financed a \u201clavish lifestyle\u201d through corrupt payments.<\/p>\n<p>Prosecutors said Alison-Madueke, 65, received bribes between 2011 and 2015 while serving as Nigeria\u2019s minister of petroleum under former President Goodluck Jonathan. Business figures seeking lucrative oil and gas contracts offered her financial and material benefits in exchange for influence and preferential treatment.<\/p>\n<p>Alison-Madueke allegedly received \u00a3100,000 in cash, private jet travel, chauffeur-driven vehicles, refurbishment of London properties, luxury goods from Harrods and Louis Vuitton, and payment of her son\u2019s school fees. She also served as OPEC president between 2014 and 2015.<\/p>\n<p>Two co-defendants, her brother Doye Agama and Olatimbo Ayinde, face related charges. Judge Justine Thornton said the trial is expected to conclude by April 24.<\/p>\n<p>Alison-Madueke has been on bail since her 2015 arrest in London and has consistently denied all allegations. In Nigeria, courts previously ordered the seizure of properties linked to her, while the EFCC continues to pursue pending cases.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Huldah Shado Former Nigerian petroleum minister, Diezani Alison-Madueke, on Tuesday pleaded not guilty to multiple bribery charges as her trial began at Southwark Crown Court in London, with British prosecutors alleging she financed a \u201clavish lifestyle\u201d through corrupt payments. Prosecutors said Alison-Madueke, 65, received bribes between 2011 and 2015 while serving as Nigeria\u2019s minister [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":82263,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-82262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82262"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82262\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":82264,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82262\/revisions\/82264"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/82263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}