ABUJA, May 19 (Reuters) - Nigeria's anti-corruption police said on Wednesday they wanted to question three former government ministers over a corruption scandal involving Germany's Siemens AG.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) said it was investigating the involvement of prominent Nigerians in the Siemens bribery case, one of Germany's biggest corporate scandals.
Siemens agreed in late 2008 to pay $1.3 billion in penalties to U.S. and German authorities, who accused the firm and three subsidiaries of paying thousands of dollars in bribes to federal officials in several nations, including Nigeria, from 2001 to 2007.
"The EFCC has summoned three former ministers ... for interrogation" who are alleged to have been implicated in the scandal, said the agency's spokesman Femi Babafemi. The agency did not name them. "The EFCC will get to the root of the scandal and prosecute whoever is found to have soiled his hands in respect of the case," Babafemi said.
New President Goodluck Jonathan has made fighting graft one of his top priorities in Africa's top energy producer.
Corruption is endemic in Nigeria, from traffic police asking for bribes at checkpoints to multi-million dollar cases involving senior politicians and government officials. (Reporting by Randy Fabi and Camillus Eboh, editing by Tim Pearce).
(For more Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say on the top issues, visit: http://af.reuters.com/ ) (For Interactive factbox on Nigeria please click on http://uk.reuters.com//news/factbox?fj=20090902150153.js&fn=Poverty%20and%20anger%20in%20Nigeria)
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
