Abuja - The Nigerian government has suspended the head of the oil sector's supervisory agency while it investigates the sale of oil licenses held in May 2007 just 18 days before former president Olusegun Obasanjo left office.

The Minister of State for Petroleum, Odein Ajumogobia, said that while Tony Chukwueke, head of the Department of Petroleum Resources, had been sent on compulsory leave, it was not due to any specific findings of impropriety on Chukwueke's part.

Obasanjo's successor, President Umaru Yar'Adua, has promised to weed out corruption and has reversed many decisions taken by Obasanjo as he was preparing to leave office.

The sale being investigated came hot on the heels of a May 9, 2007 court order restraining the Nigerian government from offering the oil blocks for sale.

Some 81 developers bid for 45 oil blocks during the licensing round, but many major multinationals stayed away from the sale, worried that the next government would reverse the deals.

Observers believe that Nigerians and other interested parties will view the investigation as a yardstick of Yar'Adua's commitment to weeding out corruption in Africa's second-largest oil producer. (dpa)