Nigerian senator sees conspiracy to stop graft probe

ABUJA, Dec 13 (Reuters) A Nigerian senator leading an investigation into alleged looting of public funds by President Olusegun Obasanjo and Vice President Atiku Abubakar said today there was a conspiracy to stop the probe.

The Senate started the investigation after Obasanjo presented two reports to the National Assembly accusing his deputy of diverting millions of dollars from the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) to private business concerns.

Abubakar denied that he benefited personally from the transfers, and responded by publishing scanned copies of cheques purporting to show that Obasanjo had also used PTDF money for a political slush fund and personal use.

Obasanjo says Abubakar has not addressed the accusations and has remained silent on the cheques.

The ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP) used the accusations against Abubakar to suspend him and stop him seeking its presidential ticket for elections in April next year.

Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba invited the head of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. and a director of the Department of Petroleum Resources to disclose transactions with the fund at a public hearing, but neither shed any light on the issue.

''GRAND CONSPIRACY'' ''I think what we are having here is a grand conspiracy,'' said Ndoma-Egba. ''I think somebody high up may have given instructions that government people should not cooperate so that this public hearing does not hold.'' State oil company chief Funso Kupolokun apologised, delivered a sealed letter to the committee and agreed to appear again tomorrow.

Ndoma-Egba said he would also call Minister of State for Petroleum, Edmund Daukoru, to appear before the committee tomorrow, despite the fact that Daukoru is hosting an OPEC meeting in Abuja on that day.

''OPEC or no OPEC he should appear before us tomorrow,'' the senator said.

Elections next year should mark the first handover of power from one elected president to another in Africa's most populous nation since independence from Britain in 1960.

Abubakar says Obasanjo is using corruption accusations as a means to frustrate his ambition to take the top job out of revenge for Abubakar's role in defeating an attempt to rewrite the constitution which would have allowed Obasanjo to stand for a third term in the April poll.

The president says Abubakar should answer the accusations and has not commented on Abubakar's response.

A court last week ruled that the PDP had acted wrongly in suspending Abubakar and annulled the decision. A week earlier, another court ruled that the reports accusing Abubakar of corruption had no legal foundation.

Abubakar is expected to try to run on an opposition ticket, probably newly created Action Congress.

REUTERS DKS PM0050