Oil tycoons deny paying bribes to former Nigerian minister

Two oil executives have denied paying bribes to former Nigerian oil minister Diezani Alison-Madueke, a court has been told.

Statements made by Kevin Okyere and Igho Sanomi to UK investigators were read out in Southwark Crown Court on Tuesday.

The men are part of a group of industry insiders who are alleged to have bankrolled spending sprees and luxury home stays by Alison-Madueke, 65. None of them have been charged in this case and they have not appeared in person at court.

Alison-Madueke denies five counts of accepting bribes and a charge of conspiracy to commit bribery. She has said the cost of services laid on for her while on official duties was later repaid.

In a written statement given to National Crime Agency (NCA) investigators in June 2016, Ghanian businessman Okyere said he had paid for items bought at Peter Jones by Alison-Madueke two years earlier after bumping into her at the tills and seeing she did not have enough money.

Okyere, who is chief executive of several oil and gas companies, said that the £3,900 was later reimbursed by Alison-Madueke in cash at his office in the Nigerian capital, Abuja.

He also told investigators that the allegation that he had "bribed" Alison-Madueke was "completely untrue".

Nigerian oil tycoon Sanomi, meanwhile, gave a statement to the NCA in June 2017.

In it, he said "foreign currency exchange [was] difficult in Nigeria" and that as a result he "obtained items on Mrs Alison-Madueke's behalf in London", which would all be reimbursed.

He also told the NCA that his companies "always won their contracts fairly bidding against other competitors and that at no point was Mrs Alison Madueke or anyone else improperly involved in any allocation" to him or his companies.

A statement was also read to the court on Tuesday by former Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan, who appointed Alison-Madueke as oil minister in 2010.

In it, he said it was not unusual for third parties to make payments on behalf of ministers on overseas duties.

He added that "any properly incurred incidental or in-kind assistance from third parties would be recorded and reimbursed where applicable".

Jonathan also said he had approved her use of private jets on some foreign trips.

The court previously heard how oil tycoons had allegedly paid for private jets as part of the "life of luxury" provided to the minister, which is also alleged to have included the use of properties worth millions of pounds and chauffeur-driven cars.

Alison-Madueke finished nearly 11 days of testifying earlier on Tuesday. She was asked what efforts she had made since her arrest in 2015 to provide evidence that money spent in multiple shopping trips to Harrods and other luxury stores had been paid back.

She said that since her arrest she had been held in London by the NCA "at the expense of taxpayers and had not been allowed to go back to Nigeria in the last 10 years".