Nigerian President Orders Probe of Siemens Over Bribery Charges

IBADAN, Nigeria -(Dow Jones)- Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua has directed security agencies to investigate allegations that four former Nigerian Ministers received bribes from German firm Siemens in exchange for telecommunications contracts.

A statement by Olusegun Adeniyi, Special Adviser on Communications to the President, on Sunday said Yar'Adua assured Nigerians that anybody found guilty of crime would be punished.

He said Yar'Adua directed the security agencies to take appropriate legal actions against anybody implicated in Siemens case.

"The President also wishes to assure all Nigerians that in the new nation that we seek to build under his watch. Any public official found to have abused his or her oath of office will not go unpunished," Adeniyi said.

Adeniyi added that Yar'Adua pledged that "in this Siemens scandal, as in all cases that border on good governance and transparency, there will neither be sacred cows nor a cover-up for anybody found culpable of breaching the law."

Siemens, according to a court ruling in Munich, paid bribes to officials in Nigeria and two other countries for lucrative contracts for telecommunications equipment.

The Oct. 4 ruling names four former Nigerian telecommunications Ministers as well as other officials in Nigeria, Libya and Russia as recipients of 77 bribes totaling EUR12 million, or about $17.5 million.

The Munich court ruling said EUR10 million went to Nigerians, including Cornelius Adebayo, Mohammed Bello, the late Alhaji Haruna Elewi, and Tajudeen Olarewaju, a retired army major general.

Adebayo, Bello and Elewi, were Ministers of Telecommunications under former President Olusegun Obasanjo`s administration from 1999 to 2007.

Others that reportedly benefitted from the bribe money are Jubril Aminu, Chairman, Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs, and officials of the Nigerian Telecommunications Limited and Nigeria Immigration Service.

Nigerian officials have also recently been accused of taking $6 million bribes from Wilbros, an oil-servicing firm in exchange for contracts.

Nigeria is one of the world`s most corrupt countries and its leaders have been accused of siphoning billions of dollars of crude oil money into private foreign accounts over the years.

President Yar'Adua has said he would not tolerate corrupt practices and the current reports of bribe payments to Nigerian officials would be a test for his administration and how vigorous he would deal with cases of corruption.

In a related development, The Punch newspaper on Monday reported that Michael Aondoakaa, Nigeria's Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, would summon Jonchim Schmillen, the German Ambassador to Nigeria, on Monday to explain the alleged Siemens scandal.

The paper quoted him as saying that he would also write a formal letter to the German authorities to ask for their support in the Siemens case.

-By Obafemi Oredein; Dow Jones Newswires; 234 2 7510489

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

Posted to the site on 19th November 2007