How UK probe destroyed my reputation — Alison-Madueke

Former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke, has opened up on the personal toll of the corruption investigation by the United Kingdom’s National Crime Agency, NCA, saying the lengthy probe damaged her reputation, restricted her freedom and disrupted her life despite ending in acquittal.

Speaking in an interview with the BBC days after a London court cleared her of all bribery charges, Alison-Madueke said the investigation left lasting emotional and psychological scars on her and her family.

“I’ve not been allowed to travel. I’ve not been allowed to work. They destroyed my reputation and my integrity,” she said.

The former minister, who served under former President Goodluck Jonathan and later became the first female president of OPEC, described the experience as “painful and traumatic,” adding that the restrictions imposed on her over the years affected every aspect of her life.

“When your freedom is taken away from you, it has a very deep impact upon you psychologically,” she said. “I knew that I had never done anything nefarious and I had never done any of the heinous things I was being accused of doing.”

Alison-Madueke was arrested in London in 2015 but was not formally charged until 2023. She was accused of accepting luxury gifts and benefits from oil industry figures seeking lucrative contracts in Nigeria. However, after months of trial proceedings, a jury at Southwark Crown Court acquitted her of five counts of accepting bribes and one count of conspiracy to commit bribery.

The former minister said the investigation “could have been handled a lot differently” and urged both Nigerian authorities and foreign law enforcement agencies to adopt greater sensitivity when dealing with politically exposed individuals involved in cross-border cases.

Asked who was responsible for the failures that led to the collapse of the prosecution, Alison-Madueke replied: “There’s a bit of blame everywhere.”

She also revealed that after spending almost 11 years in the United Kingdom under the shadow of the case, she now intends to review several asset forfeiture proceedings linked to her name, insisting she was never allowed to challenge some of the allegations because she had not been charged in those matters.

Her acquittal, alongside those of her brother, Doye Agama, and oil executive Olatimbo Ayinde, brought to an end one of the longest-running international corruption cases involving a former Nigerian government official.