A UK court on Monday, granted a former Nigerian minister for Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke, bail in the sum of 70,000 pounds.
Her bail followed her appearance at the Westminster Magistrates Court on Monday due to charges bordering on bribery offences amounting to 100,000 pounds after a National Crime Agency (NCA) investigation.
Although, the District Judge, Michael Snow, granted her bail, he imposed some other conditions on her as she was considered ‘a flight risk’.
Diezani, who is aged 63 served as president of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).
She was also a key figure in the government of former President, Goodluck Jonathan between 2010 and 2015.
Diezani, the NCA suspects, accepted bribes during her time as Minister for Petroleum Resources in exchange for awarding multimillion-pound oil and gas contracts.
Assets worth millions of pounds relating to the alleged offences have already been frozen as part of the ongoing investigation.
In March of this year, the NCA also provided evidence to the US Department of Justice that enabled them to recover assets totaling $53.1 million linked to Alison-Madueke’s alleged corruption.
She is alleged to have benefited from at least £100,000 in cash, chauffeur-driven cars, flights on private jets, luxury holidays for her family, and the use of multiple London properties.
Alison-Madueke was arrested in London in 2015, shortly after stepping down as minister, and was charged in August with six bribery offences.
She has spent the past eight years on police bail, living in St John’s Wood, an expensive area of London.
The charges against her, read out in court, all related to events alleged to have taken place in London.
