For nearly nine years, Olatimbo Ayinde, a Nigerian businesswoman and oil mogul, was investigated and prosecuted for corruption alongside Nigeria’s former petroleum minister, Diezani Alison-Madueke.
Ayinde, who is also a British citizen, was accused of bribery in a case the UK prosecutors brought against her and Alison-Madueke, amongst others.
Ayinde faced 2 bribery counts, including an allegation that she bribed Alison-Madueke, under section 1 of the Bribery Act 2010.
The second charge alleged that she bribed Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu in August 2015, when he was Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).
Kachikwu later became the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources and was not tried.
But on Wednesday, July 17, a jury at Southwark Crown Court in London cleared Ayinde of all charges and ended the legal battle that began with her arrest by the United Kingdom’s National Crime Agency (NCA) in 2017.
TRIAL
Ayinde’s business spans petroleum distribution, logistics, maritime services and infrastructure.
She has worked in the energy sector for more than 17.
In her defence, Ayinde said she was approached for a bribe by Kachikwu’s brother, Dumebi Kachikwu, and was told to “play along” when she reported the matter to the Department of State Services (DSS).
In March 2026, Nigeria’s Attorney General, who was in London during President Bola Tinubu’s state visit, sent a letter from the DSS to Ayinde’s legal team confirming that she had reported the matter to the DSS.
The UK prosecutors rejected that explanation. They argued that Ayinde only became an informant after paying the bribe and described the testimony of Nigerian government officials supporting her whistleblower claim as fabricated.
Her lawyers argued that she was acting as an informant and assisting investigators rather than participating in bribery.
An Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) investigator had also travelled to London to testify that Ayinde provided “vital information that assisted the investigation” of the bribery allegation.
“Miss Ayinde’s plan was to help law enforcement, and now she’s there in the dock,” Lennon told the court.
The jury later accepted Ayinde’s defence and found her not guilty.
LINK TO ALISON-MADUEKE
Ayinde’s involvement in the investigation against Alison-Madueke resulted from assistance she had rendered to Haruna Momoh, a former Managing Director of the Pipelines and Products Marketing Company (PPMC).
Ayinde was wrongly implicated because Momoh, who was receiving cancer treatment in the United Kingdom at the time, had access to her credit card to pay for expenses during his medical stay.
THE WHISTLER gathered that some of the transactions made with the card were linked by investigators to benefits allegedly received by Alison-Madueke.
The prosecutors argued that the payments amounted to improper benefits connected to bribery allegations.
But Ayinde’s lawyers maintained that the transactions were misunderstood and did not represent corrupt payments.
The jury accepted her explanation and cleared her of the allegations.
British prosecutors had accused Alison-Madueke of receiving luxury goods, cash payments, private jet flights and access to expensive properties from individuals seeking favours in the petroleum sector.
In her defence, Alison-Madueke argued that some of the expenses presented by prosecutors were either official government expenses or payments made personally.
After a six-month trial and more than 46 hours of court deliberation, Alison-Madueke was acquitted of all six charges.
Ayinde was also cleared of the charges that she bribed Alison-Madueke and another relating to the alleged $5m payment to Kachikwu.
Doye Agama, Alison-Madueke’s brother and another defendant in the case, was also acquitted.
(The Whistler)
