THE Nigerian Senate is to pick a new head of the upper house of parliament after voting to oust the country’s third-highest ranking official over charges of corruption. Senators were scheduled to pick a successor to Chuba Okadigbo, dismissed by 81 votes to 14 after he refused repeated pleas to resign over detailed allegations made against him in the report of a Senate committee. Okadigbo was accused by the committee report of inflating contracts, overspending on furnishing his official home, accepting US$200 000 as a Christmas “welfare gift” and acquiring eight unauthorised cars to bring his official fleet to 32. – AFP