Nigerian officials accused of taking $42M

ABUJA, Nigeria, May 15 (UPI) -- Ten members of the Nigerian National Assembly are accused of siphoning $42 million from public funding, authorities allege.

The BBC said Friday those assembly members accused of fraud repeatedly pleaded innocent during a hearing Thursday into the members' activities during their nearly eight-year investigation into the energy crisis facing Nigeria.

The assembly members had been tasked with determining what became of $16 billion the government under former President Olusegun Obasanjo had tabbed for Nigeria's troubled energy sector.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission alleges the members siphoned $42 million into front companies at the end of their investigation into energy operations which lasted between 1999 and 2007.

All-Africa.com said among those accused of fraud Thursday in a Federal High Court in the capital of Abuja were Nicholas Ugbane, chairman of the Senate Committee on Power, and Dr. Abdullahi Aliyu, permanent secretary in the Ministry of Power.