Nigerian Senate clears Obasanjo, indicts deputy in oil fund probe

Nigeria's Senate cleared outgoing President Olusegun Obasanjo of corruption in the management of a multi-billion-dollar oil fund but indicted his deputy.

The upper chamber late Thursday ratified the report of an ad hoc committee set up to look into allegations of graft in the management of the Petroleum Technology Development Fund which was under the supervision of outgoing Vice President Atiku Abubakar.

The Senate had initially found that Abubakar had embezzled money but had also reproached Obasanjo for allocating some of the cash to projects not originally intended to receive funding.

On Thursday however the upper house decided Obasanjo had done nothing wrong given that he had subsequently obtained cabinet approval for the funds he had redirected.

However, it confirmed that Abubakar acted illegally when he disbursed the sum of 20 million dollars (15 million euros) in October 2003 without the approval of his boss.

Lat year Obasanjo ordered the country's anti-graft body, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to investigate the Fund based on a tip-off contained in a letter he received from an American legislator.

The EFFC indicted Abubakar of corruption and recommended that he should be barred from contesting last month's presidential poll.

The Supreme Court eventually cleared him to contest but he came a distant third to Umaru Yar'Adua, Obasanjo's annointed successor.

Source : news.yahoo.com