Dimeji Bankole, one of the most powerful politicians in the outgoing administration, is due to appear at a high court in the capital Abuja to face 16 counts of attempted fraud, the first in a series of charges expected to be brought against him.
Charges filed by prosecutors on Tuesday accuse Bankole of conspiring to inflate the cost of hundreds of television sets, computers, printers and photocopiers, and rigging the bid for two bullet-proof Range Rovers and three luxury Mercedes cars.
“The charges were filed today in order not to keep the ex-speaker in detention beyond the time allowed by law,” said Femi Babafemi, spokesman for the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Nigeria’s anti-corruption agency.
“More charges will be filed in the coming days when investigations would have been concluded on other fraud allegations against Mr Bankole,” he said.
The EFCC says the allegations include the misappropriation of 9 billion naira, the diversion of funds in a 2.3 billion naira car-buying scheme, and taking a 10 billion naira personal bank loan using parliament’s account as collateral.
The former parliament speaker, arrested on Sunday at his residence by EFCC officers who feared he planned to flee the country, is expected to enter a plea on Wednesday.
He has already denied benefiting from the bank loan.
President Goodluck Jonathan, who was sworn in for his first full term in office at the end of May after winning elections a month earlier, has pledged to tackle endemic corruption.
But the EFCC has arrested senior political figures in the past, including powerful former state governors whose cases have largely failed to end in prosecution.
The cost of running parliament in Africa’s most populous nation is already disproportionately high.
Senators’ official monthly salary in the last parliament was 1.4 million naira a month before tax, while members of the lower house received 1.1 million, in a country where most of the population earn around $2 a day.
The 109 members of the Senate also received a quarterly allowance of 63 million naira for ill-defined “constituency projects”, travel and medical expenses, according to Nigeria’s Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre.
The charges accuse Bankole of almost doubling the cost of 400 television sets, 800 desktop computers and 400 printers on May 28, 2008, a year after the new parliament had started work.