President Obasanjo orders probe of his own finances

ABUJA – Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo has ordered his country’s anti-graft agency to probe his own finances after being accused by a state governor of skimming commissions from oil and defence contracts, the country’s top corruption investigator said on Friday.

Nuhu Ribadu, head of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), told reporters that Obasanjo had passed him a letter from Governor Orji Uzor Kalu of Abia State which made serious allegations against the president, senate leaders and senior officials. Obasanjo’s accompanying note read: “I authorise you to clinically look into these allegations and make your findings known, not only to me, but to the nation.”Nigeria has a dismal reputation as one of the most corrupt countries in the world and previous heads of state are now known to have siphoned off billions of dollars in public funds and stashed them in secret foreign bank accounts.Obasanjo, who was elected in 1999 at the end of Nigeria’s last period of military dictatorship, set up the EFCC and has made a great public show of fighting graft.No senior official has yet been convicted of a corruption offence in his six years in office, but a minister and the senate president have been sacked and are under investigation and a chief of police has been charged with embezzling almost US$100 million.Kalu, a ruling party governor who has fallen out with Obasanjo, alleged in a letter sent on August 22 that senators and presidential aides took illegal commissions on defence and oil contracts and that Obasanjo held foreign bank accounts and a new “platinum credit card”.Ribadu said that the governor would be asked to provide evidence of his charges.- Nampa-AFPObasanjo’s accompanying note read: “I authorise you to clinically look into these allegations and make your findings known, not only to me, but to the nation.”Nigeria has a dismal reputation as one of the most corrupt countries in the world and previous heads of state are now known to have siphoned off billions of dollars in public funds and stashed them in secret foreign bank accounts.Obasanjo, who was elected in 1999 at the end of Nigeria’s last period of military dictatorship, set up the EFCC and has made a great public show of fighting graft.No senior official has yet been convicted of a corruption offence in his six years in office, but a minister and the senate president have been sacked and are under investigation and a chief of police has been charged with embezzling almost US$100 million.Kalu, a ruling party governor who has fallen out with Obasanjo, alleged in a letter sent on August 22 that senators and presidential aides took illegal commissions on defence and oil contracts and that Obasanjo held foreign bank accounts and a new “platinum credit card”.Ribadu said that the governor would be asked to provide evidence of his charges.- Nampa-AFP