Nigeria will prosecute its citizens allegedly involved in the Halliburton Co. (HAL) bribery scandal when their names are received from the U.S. government, a senior official said Tuesday.

Speaking on national television, Dora Akunyili, minister of information said Nigeria had written three letters to the U.S. government requesting that the names of the Nigerians involved in the scandal be forwarded to the federal government in Abuja, the Nigerian capital. She said the names of Nigerians involved would be released to the public and be prosecuted.

Senior Nigerian officials were reported to be involved in the alleged multimillion-dollar bribes paid by Halliburton in exchange for contracts to build the Nigeria liquefied natural gas project. Last year, Halliburton fired its executive Albert Stanley for bribing Nigerian officials, whose names have not been disclosed.

Stanley had alleged that the bribes were paid to win the $6 billion contract for the building of the NLNG facility in Bonny Island, southeast Nigeria, between 1995 and 2004.

"We have requested the U.S. government to furnish Nigeria with details of the scandal to fast-track investigations and prosecution," Akunyili said.

She said Nigeria could not operate in a vacuum, adding "we must get detailed information from the U.S. Department of State. And if we get it tomorrow, we will release them to the public."

She said the mutual legal assistance being requested from the U.S. government is to enable Nigeria to prosecute those Nigerians involved in the bribery scandal.

-By Obafemi Oredein; Dow Jones Newswires; 234 2 7510489