The corruption trial of a former petroleum minister, Diezani Alison-Madueke, in London had its start delayed on Monday for legal and technical reasons, lawyers said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The 65-year-old, who is the first female president of OPEC, faces five counts of accepting bribes and one count of conspiracy to commit bribery, related to her time as Minister for Petroleum Resources between 2010 and 2015, when Goodluck Jonathan was Nigeria\u2019s president.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The trial may not begin until Tuesday, with both the prosecution and defence teams needing to agree on certain evidence that may or may not be examined during the proceedings \u2014 and to finalise the selection of jurors \u2014 lawyers said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Alison-Madueke is accused of accepting \u201cfinancial or other advantages\u201d from individuals linked to the Atlantic Energy and SPOG Petrochemical groups between 2011 and 2015.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
These included the use of refurbishment work on, and staff costs at several London properties, furniture, chauffeur-driven cars, a private jet flight to Nigeria and \u00a3100,000 ($137,000) in cash.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Other counts allege she received bribes, including school fees for her son, products from high-end shops such as Harrods and Louis Vuitton, and further private jet flights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Accepting these bribes constituted \u201cimproper performance\u201d of her duties as oil minister, the indictment read.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She appeared at a London court last week for preliminary proceedings, including technical matters and jury selection, ahead of the trial, which is expected to last 10 to 12 weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Two others, Doye Agama and Olatimbo Ayinde, are also being prosecuted on bribery charges linked to the case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Abuse Of Power\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Alison-Madueke has been on bail since she was first arrested in London in October 2015.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She has denied the charges against her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2023, she was formally charged with offences of accepting bribes, the National Crime Agency (NCA) said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe suspect Diezani Alison-Madueke abused her power in Nigeria and accepted financial rewards for awarding multi-million-pound contracts,\u201d the NCA said at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Earlier in 2023, the NCA, which targets international and serious and organised crime, said it provided evidence to US prosecutors allowing them to recover assets totalling $53.1 million linked to Alison-Madueke\u2019s alleged corruption.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They included luxury real estate in California and New York, as well as a 65-metre (213-foot) superyacht, the Galactica Star, the US Department of Justice announced on March 27.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Born to a well-off family in the oil city of Port Harcourt in 1960, Alison-Madueke studied architecture in Britain and the United States before joining oil giant Shell\u2019s Nigerian subsidiary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In politics, she held three major positions in government \u2014 first as Transport Minister in 2007 under president Umaru Musa Yar\u2019Adua, then Minister of Mines and Steel development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When Jonathan took over after the death of Yar\u2019Adua, he appointed her Minister of Petroleum Resources in April 2010.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2014, she became the first female president of OPEC, a role she held for around a year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The corruption trial of a former petroleum minister, Diezani Alison-Madueke, in London had its start delayed on Monday for legal and technical reasons, lawyers said. The 65-year-old, who is the first female president of OPEC, faces five counts of accepting bribes and one count of conspiracy to commit bribery, related to her time as Minister […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":90706,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-90705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t