By Tume Ahemba
LAGOS (Reuters) - Nigeria has charged the former governor of southwestern Ekiti state, who was on the run for over a year, with corruption and money laundering, court papers showed on Tuesday.
Ayodele Fayose is the seventh governor from the last administration to face corruption charges since President Umaru Yar'Adua and a new crop of state governors took office after elections in April.
Fayose went into hiding in October 2006 after the state house of assembly impeached him over alleged corruption, removing his immunity from prosecution.
He turned himself in to the anti-corruption Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Friday, saying he wanted to fight the allegations against him in court. He pleaded not guilty on Monday to 51 criminal charges and was ordered kept in prison until the next hearing, scheduled for January 10.
The charge sheet, circulated on Tuesday by the EFCC, shows Fayose is accused of stealing 1.4 billion naira meant for a state government poultry farm, and of laundering $100,000 and another 112,200 pounds. It says the crimes were committed in 2004.
Then President Olusegun Obasanjo declared a six-month state of emergency in Ekiti after Fayose was removed because of tensions connected to the impeachment, which Obasanjo said was unconstitutional.
Nigeria's 36 state governors have discretionary powers over millions of dollars of public funds and enjoy immunity from prosecution while in office.
Nigeria, Africa's top oil producer, is one of the world's most corrupt countries, according to independent watchdog Transparency International.
The prosecution of the seven ex-governors is being closely watched by civil rights campaigners keen to see Yar'Adua's pledges of zero tolerance to corruption followed up by action.
Five of the ex-governors were charged in June and granted bail. Anti-graft activists say there has been no significant progress in their court cases since they were let out months ago, signalling a lack of will to see the cases through.
But in a politically significant development, the EFCC last week charged James Ibori, ex-governor of oil-producing Delta state, with embezzling over $85 million and trying to bribe police $15 million to stop investigating him.
Ibori's case is seen as a test of Yar'Adua's commitment to the fight against corruption because he was one of the main financiers of the president's electoral campaign in a country where such connections are usually a shield from the law.
