[Reuters] Former Nigerian oil minister Diezani Alison-Madueke had no real influence over the awarding of lucrative government contracts and was merely a “rubber stamp” for official recommendations, her lawyer said on Thursday at her London corruption trial.
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Alison-Madueke, minister for petroleum resources between 2010 and 2015 under then-president Goodluck Jonathan, has pleaded not guilty to five counts of accepting bribes and a charge of conspiracy to commit bribery.
Prosecutors say Alison-Madueke “enjoyed a life of luxury” in London, with oil and gas industry figures having provided the use of high-end properties and given her lavish gifts to try and influence the awarding of lucrative contracts.
But her lawyer Jonathan Laidlaw told jurors at London’s Southwark Crown Court that purchases were made on Alison-Madueke’s behalf “because Nigerian ministers are forbidden from having bank accounts abroad”.
He also said Alison-Madueke, 65, disputes the extent to which properties were provided for her use and the amounts of goods she received, but that “all that was spent on her personally, in one way or another, was reimbursed”.
Laidlaw said personal expenses were repaid by Alison-Madueke in Nigeria and expenses relating to official business were “reimbursed from government coffers”, meaning Alison-Madueke received no financial advantage.
“If there was any financial advantage, it was to Nigeria, enabling the Minister for Petroleum Resources to undertake her ministerial business and … there was, of course, nothing improper about it,” he added.
Alison-Madueke, who was also briefly president of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, is standing trial alongside her brother Doye Agama, 69, who has pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to commit bribery relating to his church.
Their co-defendant Olatimbo Ayinde, 54, has pleaded not guilty to one count of bribing Alison-Madueke between 2012 and 2014 and one count of bribery of a foreign public official.
The trial, expected to conclude in April, is one of the most high-profile cases relating to alleged corruption in oil-rich Nigeria.
Prosecutors say that Nigerian businessman Kolawole Aluko spent more than 2 million pounds ($2.8 million) on items for Alison-Madueke at London department store Harrods alone.
Alison-Madueke is also accused of taking bribes, including gifts and payment for her son’s school fees, from prominent oil and gas industry figures.
But, Laidlaw told the jury, none of the others named in the charges against Alison-Madueke have been charged, nor had Britain sought to have them extradited to stand trial.
Laidlaw said Alison-Madueke’s role as minister meant she signed off on oil and gas contracts which were awarded by the Nigerian government.
He told the jury to ask whether Alison-Madueke had “any ability to exercise influence upon who would be awarded these contracts or … was she effectively a rubber stamp, stamping the recommendations that her civil servants made”.
Alison-Madueke’s lawyer also acknowledged that Nigeria, which is one of the world’s largest producers of oil and the largest in Africa, had long been blighted by corruption.
He said, however, that perception of government and business practices may be different in Britain compared to Nigeria.
“Things which may seem uncomfortable or extravagant to all of us sitting here in Southwark, may well feel very different to 12 people sitting together in Nigeria,” Laidlaw told the jury.
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