LAGOS, May 23 (AFP) - Former Nigerian finance minister Anthony Ani claimed Sunday he was ready to face trial over alleged involvement in a 2.5-billion-dollar steel industry scam. Ani, who was finance minister under late military ruler General Sani Abacha, said in the statement published in the Vanguard newspaper that he was ready to be "executed by firing squad" if found guilty. "I support the call for me to be prosecuted in respect of the transfer of the 2.5 billion dollars or for a high-powered commission of enquiry to be conducted," Ani said. "If I am found to be in anyway involved in an unauthorised transaction while I was a minister, I submit myself for trial and if found guilty to be executed by firing squad," he said. Earlier this year, Mohammed Haruna, spokesman for Abacha's sucessor, General Abdulsalami Abubakar, accused Ani of involvement in the so-called Ajaokuta Steel scandal. The steel mill was built in the 1980s at a cost of around five billion dollars. Under Abacha, a Russian contracting firm demanded payment of 2.5 billion dollars for its work on the project. Speaking after an investigation carried out by Abubakar's regime, Haruna claimed the money was drawn from public coffers but most went to an off-shore company which bought off the Russian debt. He claimed that Ani was involved with this company. In his statement Sunday, Ania said Haruna's claim was "a lie" aimed at "destroying my reputation". The former minister added that he had, when asked, returned to public coffers "gifts" of 30 million German marks and three million dollars made to him by Abacha, gifts he had found "embarrassing," he said. The minister added that when he left office following Abacha's death last June Nigeria's foreign reserves stood at 9.3 billion dollars, against the 3.1 billion dollars reported recently by the outgoing regime. Abubakar said recently the reserves stood at 7.3 billion dollars when he came into office. "I am ready to submit myself and my tenure as finance minister to any impartial public enquiry and make further clarifications as necessary," he said.  