Diezani’s Alleged Bribery Suit Adjourned To February
Proceedings in the corruption charges filed by United Kingdom’s National Crime Agency (NCA) against former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Allison-Madueke, have been adjourned to February 23,2024.
During the 15-minute inquiry, neither the ex-minister nor her two co-defendants, Olatimbo Ayinde and Doye Agame, were asked to take any plea. But all three were asked to confirm their names.
The mother of one nodded and said, “yes” when the court clerk queried: “Are you Diezani Allison-Madueke?” Unlike Agame, who asked for a variation of his bail conditions to allow him to sleep elsewhere outside his known address within the United Kingdom, to which the judge agreed, Allison-Madueke did not make any application to vary hers. She is currently on a £70,000 bond bail, and must be at her known London address between 11:00p.m. and 6:00a.m. daily.
Before adjourning, the judge reminded her and Ayinde that “l’ve given you bail as before, but have varied the conditions of that of Agame as already mentioned.”
The erstwhile minister, who was arrested in October 2015 by the Metropolitan Police, is alleged by the NCA to have accepted bribes in exchange for awards of multi-million pounds oil and gas contracts when she served the then President Goodluck Jonathan administration between 2010 and 2015.
The defendant, who also acted as president of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), from 2014 to 2015, is also being accused of benefiting up to £100,000 in cash. She is yet to take a plea to the charges. The proposed trial is to last between six and seven weeks.
