LAGOS, N (AP)-- Police on Friday arrested the head of a federal agency charged with developing N's impoverished southern oil region after allegations that the man spent millions of dollars on a witch doctor in hopes vanquishing a rival.

President Umaru Yar'Adua announced Friday that the head of the Niger Delta Development Corporation, Sam Edem, had been suspended from his job after local media reports of Edem's large expenditure on black magic. Police later said he had been arrested.

The police said they were investigating the source of the roughly $4 million Edem reportedly spent on hiring a sorcerer to hex and kill another development official.

The federal government said it was investigating how Edem, a civil servant in a country of low wages, had amassed the fortune he used to engage the sorcerer.

The government said in a statement that Edem wasn't available for comment. It added that he hasn't denied any of the charges.