By Camillus Eboh
ABUJA, April 8 (Reuters) - A daughter of former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo and two former health ministers were charged in court on Tuesday with embezzling around 470 million naira ($4 million) of public health funds.
President Umaru Yar'Adua, who took over from Obasanjo in May after winning a turbulent election, has pledged a campaign of "zero tolerance" against graft in Africa's top oil exporter, which is rated among the world's most corrupt states.
With a parliamentary commission probing allegations that billions of dollars were squandered on shady unfinished power projects during Obasanjo's rule, calls have increased for the former president to be called to testify in the enquiry.
The charges brought by prosecutors at the High Court in the capital Abuja against his daughter, Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello, who chairs the Senate health committee, were the first to be made against a member of Obasanjo's family since he stepped down.
The two ex-ministers charged, Adenike Grange and Gabriel Aduku, were forced to resign last month after the scandal over misuse of Health Ministry funds emerged in February. They had been serving as the minister and minister of state for health and were the first cabinet casualties of the new administration.
The former ministers and nine top health officials pleaded not guilty in court to the 54-count charges levelled against them by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), which says a total of 471 million naira was embezzled.
Obasanjo-Bello, who was not present in court, was accused of illicitly receiving 10 million naira of the money.
In comments to Nigerian media, she has denied wrongdoing, saying she collected the money to pay for the travel expenses of the Senate health committee members for a visit to Ghana.
The judge ordered the other 11 accused to be remanded in EFCC custody. He adjourned their case until Friday when he would hear applications for bail and set April 29 as the trial date.
YEAR-END SPENDING SPREE
Nigerian media reported in February the EFCC had questioned the ex-ministers and senior officials for allegedly spending several hundred million naira of the ministry's 2007 budget on dubious contracts and Christmas gifts before the year-end.
This spending contravened a direct order from Yar'Adua for all government agencies to return unspent monies from the 2007 budget to the federal treasury in a new anti-graft drive.
Under the previous administration, government officials had often embarked on end-year spending sprees to exhaust all budgeted funds, with large amounts of money being shared out by top government officials as bonuses.
Yar'Adua, who has already acquired a reputation as a cautious and low-key ruler, has come under domestic and international pressure to crack down hard on corruption.
Foreign investors and donors are closely watching Nigeria's efforts to improve management of public funds and oil profits.
Yar'Adua has said he will protect nobody and would let the EFCC go after anyone found to be corrupt.
The anti-corruption body has charged eight out of the 36 state governors from the previous administration, including two of Yar'Adua's main financiers during last year's election campaigning. The prosecutions went ahead after the targeted governors' tenures ended in May and they lost their immunity.
Some anti-graft campaigners fear the trials will drag on for years since the cases have hardly made any progress over the past few months and the ex-governors have been freed on bail. (For full Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say on the top issues, visit: http://africa.reuters.com/) (Writing by Tume Ahemba; Editing by Pascal Fletcher and Mary Gabriel)
