Former Nigerian petroleum minister Diezani Alison-Madueke appeared at the Southwark Crown Court in London on Monday for a preliminary hearing in her bribery case.
The hearing, listed for Court 8 before Justice Thornton, comes ahead of her full trial scheduled to start on January 26, 2026.
Alison-Madueke was charged in August 2023 by the UK government over an alleged £100,000 bribe. The UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) said it suspected she accepted the payment in exchange for awarding multi-million-pound oil and gas contracts during her tenure as minister.
She served as Nigeria’s minister of petroleum resources from 2010 to 2015 under the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan and was elected president of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in 2014.
In October 2023, the Westminster magistrates court granted her bail in the sum of £70,000, imposing strict conditions after deeming her a flight risk. She was required to wear an electronic tag, adhere to an 11pm to 6am curfew and pay a £70,000 surety before leaving the court.
In January 2025, Nigeria and the United States signed an asset return agreement for $52.88 million recovered from the Galactica assets linked to Alison-Madueke. The US government said she and her associates used proceeds from the alleged illicit contracts to buy luxury properties in California and New York and to acquire the Galactica Star, a 65-metre superyacht.
Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has also pursued assets tied to the former minister in the country.
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