“I can state categorically that at no point did I ask for, take or receive a bribe of any sort from these persons and did not abuse my office,” Alison-Madueke advised the court docket.
“I always sought to act impartially”.
She stated cash spent on her behalf was reimbursed by the state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC), including {that a} service firm was arrange in London to deal with the logistics as a result of the monetary construction of the NNPC was in a multitude.
“They paid for all my hotels, chauffeurs… to allow me to perform the job that I did,” she stated.
The prosecution’s case relies on allegations that Alison-Madueke was given entry to a “grand” house in Buckinghamshire, a £2.8 million house in Marylebone, and multi-million pound houses overlooking Regent’s Park, and allegedly benefited from renovations valued at £4.6m.
The court docket heard how she and her prolonged household spent 5 days over Christmas 2011 at a home in Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire, as a result of her ex-husband required hospital remedy and couldn’t fly again to Nigeria.
She stated she was not concerned within the preparations for the keep.
A second go to, she stated, was over two weeks when she and 10 to 12 officers wrote a e book praising the Nigerian president’s championing of ladies.
“I took it upon myself to put together that book to showcase what he did for women,” she stated.
Alison-Madueke stated one other property overlooking Regent’s Park was used for “discrete” official conferences, whereas she stated one other property she is accused of utilizing was “completely gutted” for renovations and unusable when she noticed it.
The court docket had beforehand heard how Alison-Madueke and her mom stayed in two residences in St John’s Wood with the hire being coated by Nigerian businessman Kolawole Aluko. He is one in every of a number of Nigerian businessman concerned within the case who usually are not on trial.
Alison-Madueke stated she had urged this was less expensive than persevering with to rent £2,000-a-night suites in costly accommodations just like the Savoy and Dorchester.
In court docket on Monday, the previous minister stated she was not conscious on the time that one in every of her chauffeurs had delivered £100,000 in money to her, including that the cash had had nothing to do together with her.
The court docket heard how Alison-Madueke had risen rapidly by means of the ranks at Shell, turning into the primary senior feminine government in its Nigerian operation.
This was regardless of her not desirous to work for the multinational firm due to its remedy of her father, she stated, who had as soon as additionally been a senior worker.
“I found the job uncomfortable to put in mildly, ” she stated, explaining that her father, who was a tribal chief, had as soon as unsuccessfully taken authorized motion towards Shell “for apartheid practice in West Africa.”
She advised the court docket how when she labored at Shell, the corporate was having huge issues coping with oil spills within the Niger delta space the place her household was from. She did not consider the corporate had finished sufficient “to make good on the devastation that they had caused”.
Asked about considerations together with her personal safety, she stated Nigeria was a “very patriarchal society” so to have a “woman sitting at the helm was a major no no.”
She added that she was “under dire threats of kidnap” and that members of her household had been seized.
The court docket additionally heard how in 2015, Alison-Madueke was elected the primary feminine head of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec), a bunch of oil-exporting nations which meets to resolve how a lot crude oil to promote on the world market.
Alison-Madueke denies 5 counts of accepting bribes and a cost of conspiracy to commit bribery.
Also on trial, oil business government Olatimbo Ayinde, 54, denies one depend of bribery and one other depend of bribing a overseas public official.
Meanwhile, Alison-Madueke’s brother, former archbishop Doye Agama, 69, denies conspiracy to commit bribery.
The trial continues.
