The corruption trial of Diezani Alison-Madueke, a former Nigerian Minister for Petroleum Resources and the first woman to lead the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), is due to begin in London, the capital of the United Kingdom, on Monday, 26 January 2026.
Alison-Madueke, 65, faces five counts of accepting bribes and one count of conspiracy to commit bribery. The allegations relate to the period when she served as Nigeria’s oil minister between 2010 and 2015, during the administration of Goodluck Jonathan, who was Nigeria’s president at the time.
Prosecutors allege that between 2011 and 2015, she accepted “financial or other advantages” from people linked to two energy companies. The alleged benefits include the use of several properties in London, refurbishment work on those properties, and staff costs connected to them.
The indictment also lists furniture, chauffeur-driven cars, a private jet flight to Nigeria, and £100,000 ($137,000) in cash among the alleged bribes.
Other counts claim she received bribes in the form of school fees for her son, goods from luxury retailers including Harrods and Louis Vuitton, and additional private jet flights.
Prosecutors say accepting the alleged benefits amounted to improper performance of her duties as minister in charge of Nigeria’s petroleum sector, which is central to the country’s economy.
Alison-Madueke appeared in a London court last week for early proceedings, including technical issues and jury selection, ahead of the full trial. The case is expected to last about 10 to 12 weeks.
Two other defendants, Doye Agama and Olatimbo Ayinde, are also facing prosecution on bribery-related charges linked to the case.
Alison-Madueke has been on bail since her arrest in London in October 2015. She has denied all आरोप—charges filed against her.
In 2023, the United Kingdom’s National Crime Agency (NCA), the body that tackles serious and organised crime and major international investigations, said she had been formally charged. At the time, the NCA said: “We suspect Diezani Alison-Madueke abused her power in Nigeria and accepted financial rewards for awarding multi-million-pound contracts.”
Also in 2023, the NCA said it provided evidence to prosecutors in the United States that helped them recover assets valued at $53.1 million linked to alleged corruption connected to Alison-Madueke. The recovered assets included luxury property in the US states of California and New York, and a 65-metre (213-foot) superyacht known as the Galactica Star, according to an announcement by the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) on Wednesday, 27 March.
Alison-Madueke, who was born in 1960 in Port Harcourt, a major oil-producing city in Rivers State in southern Nigeria, studied architecture in the United Kingdom and the United States before joining Shell, the global energy company, through its Nigerian subsidiary.
In Nigerian politics, she held several top roles, including serving as transport minister in 2007 under President Umaru Yar’Adua, who led Nigeria from 2007 until his death in 2010. She later became minister of mines and steel development.
After Yar’Adua’s death, Jonathan took office and appointed Alison-Madueke as minister for petroleum resources in April 2010. In 2014, she became OPEC’s first female president, a position she held for about a year.