UK court has cleared Former Petroleum Minister Diezani Alison-Madueke of bribery charges.
NewsOnline Nigeria reports that Former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke, has been acquitted of bribery charges by a United Kingdom court following a high-profile trial in London.
According to Reuters, a jury at Southwark Crown Court on Wednesday found Alison-Madueke not guilty on six counts of bribery and conspiracy to commit bribery after more than 46 hours of deliberations.
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The former minister, who served under the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan between 2010 and 2015, had faced allegations of receiving bribes from oil and gas industry executives seeking access to lucrative contracts in Nigeria’s petroleum sector.
Prosecutors alleged that Alison-Madueke was provided with a lavish lifestyle in London in exchange for influence over the award of contracts. However, she consistently denied the accusations throughout the proceedings, maintaining that she never accepted bribes and did not have direct control over the contract-award process.
Following extensive deliberations, the jury returned unanimous not-guilty verdicts on all six charges, bringing the case to a close.
The verdict marks a significant legal victory for the former minister, whose tenure in office had been the subject of scrutiny and investigations in multiple jurisdictions over the years.
