The alleged corruption trial of the former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke commenced on Tuesday at the London’s Southwark Crown Court.

Alison-Madueke sat in the dock alongside oil 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.

British prosecutors told the court that Alison-Madueke took bribes including luxury goods and the use of high-end properties from industry figures interested in lucrative oil and gas contracts, when she was minister for petroleum resources between 2010 and 2015 under then-president Goodluck Jonathan and was also briefly president of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), the first woman to hold either role.

According to Reuters, the 65-year-old is now one of the most high-profile former energy officials to stand trial for alleged corruption, having been charged in 2023 with five counts of accepting bribes and a charge of conspiracy to commit bribery, which she denies.

Prosecutor Alexandra Healy told jurors at London’s Southwark Crown Court that Alison-Madueke “enjoyed a life of luxury in London”, where she often stayed, provided by those interested in being awarded or retaining contracts with Nigerian state-owned companies.

Healy said Alison-Madueke was given the use of high-end properties and vast quantities of luxury goods by people who “clearly believed she would use her influence to favour them”.

There was no evidence that Alison-Madueke awarded contracts to someone who should not have had one, Healy said.

But given Alison-Madueke’s role “she should not have accepted benefits from those who were no doubt doing extremely lucrative business in oil and gas with government-owned entities”, Healy added.

The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has officially debunked a viral social media post claiming that the notorious terror kingpin, Mohammed Bello Turji, has been registered as one of its members.

Reacting to the controversy on Tuesday, party spokesman Felix Morka described the purported membership slip as a “vile fabrication” designed by mischief-makers to mislead the public and tarnish the party’s image.

The APC clarified that the document, which allegedly emerged from the party’s ongoing Electronic Registration and Validation Exercise, bears no connection to its official database.Morka pointed out several glaring inconsistencies that expose the document as a crude forgery.

Specifically, the party noted that the fake slip claims Turji was registered in a “Ward 13” of the Shinkafi Local Government Area in Zamfara State.

However, official records show that Shinkafi LGA has only 10 wards, rendering the information on the slip geographically impossible.

“All digital parameters represented on the fake slip bear no connection to our Party’s membership register.

All other information paraded on the fake slip is nonexistent and certainly not contained in our membership database”, the party stated.

APC attributed the circulation of the document to “mischief makers” seeking to create confusion and foster discord within the polity for their own sinister objectives.

“I was never chased out of my office,” FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, told journalists today in Abuja.

Wike accused unnamed politicians and senior civil servants of fueling the ongoing strike by workers of the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA).

The aggrieved workers are calling for his sack over months of unpaid salaries and allowances, but Wike told journalists shortly after the National Industrial Court ordered an end to the industrial action, which has disrupted public services in Abuja for more than a week, that the strike had gone beyond workers’ welfare issues and was being exploited for political purposes, despite ongoing efforts by the administration to resolve the dispute through dialogue.

“The administration was already in the process of mediation when some politicians hijacked the strike,” Wike said, adding that several of the demands raised by workers were either unreasonable or had already been addressed.

He maintained that the FCTA had taken concrete steps to address workers’ concerns, including salary payments and reforms within the civil service.

Wike disclosed that over ₦12 billion had just been approved for the payment of January salaries, describing the move as evidence of the administration’s commitment to staff welfare.

The minister also pointed to improved revenue performance under his leadership, stating that the FCT had generated more than ₦30 billion in Internally Generated Revenue, a significant increase compared to previous years.

Wike urged workers to acknowledge reforms undertaken by the administration, including the establishment of the Civil Service Commission and investments in infrastructure across the territory