Recalls News Punch yesterday culled from The Nation Newspaper of a certain senator the EFCC has launched an investigation into a fraudulent N4 billion contract and 20 bank accounts, Senator Peter Nwaoboshi representing Delta North has opened up himself saying it was him the EFCC investigating, but claims it all about a vendetta.
It was also reported the senator allegedly used a firm to purchase a 12-storey building in Apapa, Lagos belonging to the Delta State Government at the cost of N805 million.
It was reported that the records at the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) showed that the senator failed to declare all the companies and bank accounts despite being operational prior to the time he made the declaration.
A source said that the investigation of the senator followed a petition from Delta State.
The petitioner, the report said, alleged that the senator owns a firm which was awarded a N1,580,000,000 contract by the Direct Labour Agency to supply construction equipment.
The petitioner also claimed that the senator through his firm allegedly secured contracts from nine local governments areas in Delta State when the firm was yet to be registered under the Company and Allied Matters Act.
The petitioner was said to have alleged that the senator used proceeds from the contract to acquire several choice property in Lagos and Delta states, one of which is the 12-storey building in Apapa, Lagos.
But Senator Nwaoboshi told reporters in Abuja that the claims of the EFCC were all lies aimed tarnishing his image.
The lawmaker said that there was no fraud in the execution of a N2.1billion contract awarded his company, Biderberg Enterprises Limited, by the Delta State Government in 2010.
Nwaoboshi, who is chairman, Senate Committee on Niger Delta Development Commission (NDCC), also refuted the claim that he fraudulently acquired a12-storey building belonging to Delta State in Apapa, Lagos in collaboration with his younger brother, Augustine Nwaoboshi.
He insisted that the whole allegations bordered on vendetta against him by the EFCC based on his recent position and the position of the Senate on the confirmation of the Acting Chairman of the EFCC,, Ibrahim Magu.
Nwaoboshi said: “Why is the EFCC coming up against me now over contracts diligently and transparently executed seven years ago by my company, if not for misplaced vendetta that cannot in any way silence me or compromise my principled stance over some salient national issues before the Senate .
”Delta State government that awarded the contract is not complaining or any notable stakeholders in the state.
”So what interest is the EFCC serving over the matter when nobody from the state had raised any issue bordering on corruption as far as the contract is concerned or the 12-storey building bought in Lagos by one of my companies which was not undervalued as being alleged .
”Even the other issue reportedly raised by the EFCC as regards multiple bank accounts by my brother is ridiculous because there is no law in the land that limits the number of bank accounts any individual in the society should have.”.
The visibly angry senator noted that the signatory to such multiple bank accounts allegedly owned by his junior brother was not his, as being alleged by the EFCC.
He wondered why “the EFCC rushed to the press to spread falsehood against him without any need to interface with me and my brother as practised worldwide as far as investigation is concerned.
He said: “No doubt, with what I’ve read in the papers against me from the EFCC, Magu is at it again, but unfortunately for him, this cannot silence me to back out of the Senate’s collective decision against his confirmation and let me add that as a lawyer of 27 years, Magu and his cohorts shall definitely meet me in court”.
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