A Nigerian oil minister went on “extravagant and excessive” spending sprees at high-end London stores with money from bribes by industry insiders, a London court has heard.
During a visit to Harrods in 2013, Diezani Alison-Madueke ordered thousands of pounds worth of rugs, including by luxury brand Alexander McQueen, Southwark Crown Court was told.
Prosecutors allege the 65-year-old was provided with “a life of luxury in the United Kingdom” by those interested in Nigerian government contracts.
Alison-Madueke, who was Nigeria’s minister of petroleum resources between 2010 and 2015, denies five counts of accepting bribes and a charge of conspiracy to commit bribery.
The court heard that during the Harrods visit in November 2013, Alison-Madueke was allegedly accompanied by Nigerian businessman Kolawole Aluko and a security guard.
According to a sales executive working in the store, the then-minister looked “extremely glamorous and was wearing very expensive clothing”.
Alison-Madueke was also a regular shopper at Vincenzo Cafferella, a decorative arts and furniture store in north London, where she was known as “Sharon D”, the court was told.
The prosecution alleges that between October 2012 and November 2013, Aluko bought various items, including lamps and tables, for Alison-Madueke costing more than £370,000.
The court heard Alison-Madueke would also spend hours in Thomas Goode, a china and silverware shop in Mayfair, and once arrived with an entourage of about four or five people.
A worker there remembered her loving the sales and saying to him: “I don’t even know why I’m buying this, I haven’t got the room for it.”
The court was told items were often bought but not collected and that Alison-Madueke never paid for anything herself.
Instead, the bills were understood to be settled by Aluko and other Nigerian businessmen said to own energy companies that had lucrative contracts with the state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation when Alison-Madueke was oil minister.
The court was also told about shipments of furniture bought for Alison-Madueke from a luxury store in Houston, Texas for several properties in London which the prosecution allege were used by the former minister.
Two of the properties were said to be bought by Nigerian businessman Benedict Peters. The jury was shown photographs from inside one of them, which included items allegedly bought for Alison-Madueke.
Alison-Madueke’s driver recalled collecting her and then-President of Nigeria Goodluck Jonathan from the same address, the court heard.
Other spending on the minister’s behalf allegedly included £89,410 to charter a jet from Luton to Lagos in Nigeria in January 2012, as well as a delivery of £100,000 cash from a bank in north London to her at a nearby flat.
The court was also told that Alison-Madueke’s phone was seized in 2015 during police searches, revealing recorded conversations in which she is said to have confronted Aluko over suggestions he had spoken about the gifts given to her at a time when their relationship was breaking down.
In a conversation in May 2014, Alison-Madueke told Aluko she was really annoyed, given that she and others had “stuck our necks out” when negotiating oil mining leases.
“I will be happy to escort all of you to jail along with myself… you’ll be shocked what I will do”, she is alleged to have said, adding: “I will come out and tell the Nigerian people this is what happened.
“Oh yes, I will blame myself… I will come out openly and say it so that they can judge me openly. And then all of us go and sit on the gate let us see who survived.”
In another instance, Igho Sanomi, an oil executive whose company was awarded Nigerian state contracts between 2011 and 2015, carried out shopping errands in London for Alison-Madueke, the court heard.
Text messages recovered from her phone showed Sanomi pledging his “loyalty and commitment”, and agreeing to collect Louis Vuitton hat boxes, replying: “Yes Your Excellency consider this done”.
By 2014 he expressed concern their relationship was deteriorating and so he allegedly sent Alison-Madueke an email calling himself her “true soldier”.
Three weeks later, Sanomi’s company was part of a consortium that was awarded a new oil mining lease by her, the court heard.
Alison-Madueke’s brother, former bishop Doye Agama, 69, is also charged with conspiracy to commit bribery, with prosecutors claiming he was paid £1.2m in bribes by businessman Peters.
The payments were intended to “induce Alison-Madueke to perform her duties as the Nigerian minister of petroleum resources improperly,” lawyers told the court.
Also on trial is industry executive Olatimbo Ayinde, 54, who is charged with one count of bribery relating to Alison-Madueke and a separate count of bribery of a foreign public official.
Both Agama and Ayinde deny the charges.
The trial continues.
Source: BBC
