Oil tycoons deny paying bribes to former Nigerian minister

Oil tycoons deny paying bribes to former Nigerian minister5 hours agoShareSaveAdd as preferred on GoogleSteve SwannSouthwark Crown CourtReutersFormer oil minister Diezani Alison-Madueke denies the charges against herTwo 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 sta...