Ex-Nigerian minister confronted tycoons who bribed her, court told

A court has heard recordings of a former Nigerian oil minister allegedly confronting two oil tycoons from whom she is accused of accepting bribes, after their relationships had broken down. Prosecutors allege that Diezani Alison-Madueke was provided with “a life of luxury” in the UK, which they say was paid for by those who sought lucrative oil contracts from the Nigerian government. In one conversation recorded on her phone, Alison-Madueke, 65, could be heard saying: “I will be happy to escort all of you to jail along with myself.” She denies five counts of accepting bribes and a charge of conspiracy to commit bribery.

Southwark Crown Court heard how a Samsung phone belonging to the former minister was seized by UK investigators during her arrest in London in 2015. On it were recordings from the previous year of two conversations Alison-Madueke had had, first with Olajide Omokore and then with Kolawole Aluko. The two oil moguls are not on trial, but prosecutors allege they paid bribes to Alison-Madueke during her time as Nigeria’s petroleum resources minister, between 2010 and 2015.

The conversations were said to have taken place when Alison-Madueke allegedly believed both Omokore’s wife and Aluko were telling people they knew of information that could “take her down”. In the first recording, from April 2014, Alison-Madueke could be heard telling Omokore: “We who are managing the thing have kept quiet. We’ve kept quiet… while people like your wife are busy singing all over the place.” Raising her voice, the former minister said: “I do not react well to being blackmailed.”