The trial of former Nigerian petroleum minister Diezani Alison-Madueke has run at Southwark Crown Court in London since January 2026. On Tuesday, it took a new turn, and not necessarily the one the prosecution wanted.
The court heard statements from two oil executives, Kevin Okyere and Igho Sanomi, read by investigators. Prosecutors allege both men bankrolled spending sprees and luxury home stays for Alison-Madueke. Neither man faces charges in this case and neither appeared in person. However, what their statements said matters.
Both denied paying bribes. 
SEE ALSO: Private jets, shopping sprees: Diezani Madueke’s Luxury London Life Revealed in UK Court
Kevin Okyere and Goodluck Jonathan’s Statements
In a written statement to National Crime Agency investigators in June 2016, Ghanaian businessman Kevin Okyere said he paid for items at Peter Jones after bumping into Alison-Madueke at the tills and seeing she lacked enough money. He told investigators he obtained items on her behalf because foreign currency exchange proved difficult in Nigeria, and that she would reimburse everything. He also stated that his companies always won contracts fairly and that Alison-Madueke played no improper role in any allocation connected to him.
The court also heard a statement from former Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan. He told investigators that third parties routinely made payments on behalf of ministers during overseas duties, and that properly incurred assistance from third parties would be recorded and reimbursed. He also confirmed approving her use of private jets on some foreign trips.
What Diezani Has Said
Prosecutors accuse Alison-Madueke, 65, of benefiting from access to multimillion-pound UK homes that energy firms paid for and refurnished. They allege she received private jets, a chauffeur-driven car, shopping trips including £2 million spent at Harrods, and £100,000 in cash while serving as minister of petroleum resources from April 2010 to May 2015.
She denies five counts of accepting bribes and one charge of conspiracy to commit bribery. She maintains that the cost of services provided during official duties was later repaid.
“At no time did I do anything to influence or show favour to anyone,” she told the court.
After completing nearly eleven days of testimony, lawyers asked what efforts she had made since her 2015 arrest to prove that money covered during shopping trips had been paid back. She responded that the NCA had held her in London at taxpayer expense since her arrest, blocking her return to Nigeria for ten years.
She also alleged that Nigerian authorities seized her papers and refused to assist her defence because of their political opposition to the government she had served.
Additionally, she suggested that gender bias and political dynamics had contributed to her prosecution, describing herself as a scapegoat in a case driven by forces larger than the charges themselves.
Who Else Is on Trial?
Her brother, former archbishop Doye Agama, 69, also faces trial. His legal team told the court he would not give evidence. He denies conspiracy to commit bribery. Oil industry executive Olatimbo Ayinde, 54, denies one count of bribery connected to Alison-Madueke and a separate count of bribing a foreign public official.
Who is Diezani Alison-Madueke
Alison-Madueke became the first female president of oil alliance OPEC. As Nigeria’s minister, she pledged to transform the oil sector. Nigerian authorities later accused her of looting millions of dollars in public funds alongside her associates, and courts granted orders seizing houses, cars and jewellery connected to her and her circle.
Her fall from power began with the defeat of the Jonathan administration in the 2015 Nigerian elections. After leaving office, the NCA arrested her in London in October 2015. Authorities then seized assets across multiple jurisdictions including the United States and Nigeria. Prosecutors formally charged her in the UK in 2023, and the trial opened in January 2026.
Over a decade from arrest to trial. And the proceedings continue.
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Where Things Stand
The prosecution builds its case around a minister who lived lavishly at the expense of oil executives who later benefited from government contracts. The defence presents a minister whose official duties came with legitimate provisions, whose bills were reimbursed, and who now cannot properly defend herself because a rival government seized her records and barred her from Nigeria for ten years.
Both pictures cannot be entirely true. However, both now sit before a jury at Southwark Crown Court, and the verdict will carry consequences stretching far beyond one woman in a hat outside a London courthouse.
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