The emergence of General Muhammadu Buhari as President of Nigeria in 2015 brought with it barefaced persecution of most public office holders in the just ousted President Goodluck Jonathan administration. Among the biggest recipients of both persecution and prosecution from the Buhari administration was the immediate past Minister of Petroleum Resources, one of the most powerful women in the world at her time, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke.
The former Petroleum Minister considered herself a lone scapegoat of the Goodluck Jonathan administration, as she was singled out for persecution because of her closeness to former President Jonathan.
For 11 long years, Alison-Madueke became a candidate of media klieglight for all the wrong reasons, tried and found guilty many times in the media space by the security operatives, especially the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
Nigeria’s former oil minister Diezani Alison-Madueke leaves Westminster Magistrates Court in London, Britain, October 02, 2023. REUTERS/ Belinda Jiao
For 11 long years since 2015, Diezani remained on the radar of the EFCC with claims of financial misappropriations which were never proven till the June 2026 United Kingdom court judgment, which exonerated her of all corruption charges and wrongdoings, and subsequently discharged and acquitted her.
After a trial at London’s Southwark Crown Court, Alison-Madueke was acquitted by a jury of all six charges she faced after more than 46 hours of deliberation.
The not guilty verdicts are a major blow to British authorities, which began their investigation into corruption allegations against Alison-Madueke more than a decade ago.
Though the Nigerian authorities maintain that her acquittal with the British does not entail automatic freedom from the Nigerian legal system, the hitherto embattled former Minister has taken a breath of relief after an 11 years traumatic experience, acknowledging divine intervention.
“I’m just thankful to God, it’s been arduous, almost 11 years. It’s been traumatic not just for me but for my family, friends, my 93-year-old mother in Port Harcourt and for my son.
“It has been a hard journey, but I tell you this, God will always do as He will. God will be God and God is not a man that He should lie; when He promises you something, He will see it through.
“For almost 11 years I have been here. I did my job to the best of my ability,” she said in appreciation.
Her long long walk to freedom took 11 harrowing years in which she faced rejection, condemnation, seizure of personal property and technical denial of entry into her fatherland. But hope, like an enduring talisman beckoned when she got her much expected reprieve through the UK court.
Among the many takeaways of Diezani’s acquittal is the position of The Boss Newspaper via its Publisher, Chief Dele Momodu’s interview with the former Minister in November, 2015. An interview that raised dust across the world, with many doubting its veracity, and others condemning the Publisher.
According to legal documents signed by Chief Mike Ozekhome, and obtained by The Boss, the legal team of the former Minister believe that the actions of the EFCC and AGF among others in her persecution are solely based on rubbishing the hard earned integrity of their client, hence the need to call a spade a spade, and put the situation into perspective.
The legal team insisted that the acts of her persecutors were geared towards destroying her hard-earned reputation and all that she has laboured for over the years. The acts, they continued, were ‘clearly accentuated by malice aforethought and bad faith, without any justification whatsoever’. Diezani had therefore, sued the EFCC in a bid to fight back.
In 2019, four years after the end of her administration, and her eventual departure to the United Kingdom, where she was seeking asylum and facing another round of litigation, reactions trailed the judgment of the High Court sitting in Lagos which ordered the total and permanent forfeiture of jewelry allegedly valued at $40 million, and belonging to a former Minister of Petroleum.
In his ruling, Justice Nicholas Oweibo held that Diezani, through her lawyer, Awa Kalu (SAN), failed to show cause why the items should not be permanently forfeited to the Federal Government.
But expressing utter disbelief in the justice system that gave judgment to the EFCC, a close family source of the Alison-Maduekes who did not wish to be named, told The Boss that it was unheard of that a case that was not in any way established or proved could be awarded the way it was done to the applicant, asking “where has it been established that she stole public funds to buy jewelry?”
The source noted that the Maduekes are not the run-off-the-mill family, and had been in many lucrative jobs before she became a minister, and as a result can afford to buy her jewelry and any other item. He noted that there is no minister who does not have other jobs they do to complement their income, wondering why Diezani’s case turned different.
“Lest we forget, this is a woman that is almost 60 years, who has been working as a high calibre professional at senior positions in the private sector for many years becoming minister. Are we saying that she could not have owned jewelry before becoming minister,” the source wondered.
Further expressing displeasure at the ‘miscarriage of justice’, the source alleged that “they broke into her home without a search warrant, and with no one present”, stressing that the former minister was not even served through her lawyer, and ‘nobody knows how the value of the seized items jumped from the initial two million to 40 million’.
The source queried as follows: “how do we know that the jewelry in question are all hers, especially as she had not been able to verify that what is being bandied even belong to her.”
Faulting the anti-graft agency’s allegation that the items in question were beyond Diezani’s legitimate earnings, the source lamented that “no matter how anyone looks at this, it is a clear case of miscarriage of justice’.
In 2023, eight years into her media trial and general condemnation, Diezani Alison-Madueke, while acknowledging that every human being makes mistakes, emphatically stated that one error that can never be ascribed to her is stealing. She echoed The Boss publication of 2015, where she insisted that she didn’t steal Nigeria’s money.
If one thing has been consistent with the defence of the former Minister, it has been her unequivocal denial of complicity in any missing money. Her lines have remained, ‘I didn’t steal Nigeria’s money’.
Overleaf are excerpts from her November 2025 interview with Chief Momodu. The interview that set in motion a chain reaction that has lasted 11 years.
