LAGOS,  - A Nigerian court has issued an arrest warrant for a senior member of  former President Olusegun Obasanjo's administration charged with abuse of office and  criminal conspiracy, police said on Thursday.

Authorities plan to ask Interpol for help in tracking down Nasir el-Rufai, minister of the Federal Capital Territory under Obasanjo from 2003-2007, after he failed to show up to any  of his court hearings in the past seven months.

El-Rufai, who is studying abroad in the United States, faces eight criminal charges, which  includes the illegal re-allocation of land belonging to the state-run Power Holding Company of  Nigeria to himself and his associates.

El-Rufai's lawyer Robert Amsterdam has denounced the arrest warrant as "groundless" and  "part of a campaign of intimidation invented not for the purpose of detention, but rather to  dissuade the long-awaited return to Nigeria of el-Rufai."

The former minister, who is a strong critic of President Umaru Yar'Adua's administration, was reported in the local media this week as saying he planned to return to Nigeria before the end  of the year.

Corruption is endemic in Africa's top oil and gas producer, from traffic police asking for bribes at checkpoints to multi-million dollar cases involving senior politicians and government officials.