N6bn Fraud: EFCC Confirms Arrest Of Ibori’s Ally, Nwaoboshi

Sen. Peter Nwaoboshi

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has confirmed that the arrested of the senator representing Delta-North Senatorial District, Senator Peter Nwaoboshi, for an alleged fraud of N6bn.

The EFCC spokesman, Mr. Wilson Uwujaren, confirmed this in a telephone conversation with the PUNCH on Monday.

“The senator is currently in our custody. He was arrested over the weekend,” Uwujaren said.

Nwaoboshi, who is a professed loyalist of convicted former governor of Delta State, James Ibori, has been on the radar of the EFCC for nearly two years following a series of petitions written against him.

He had, however, shunned several petitions until he was eventually arrested.

In one of such petitions, it was alleged that the lawmaker, who is the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Niger Delta Affairs, got contracts through 15 companies.

The contracts, which the lawmaker allegedly failed to honour, were for the supply of 500,000 plastic desks and chairs for primary and secondary schools in nine oil producing states in Nigeria which was included in the 2016 budget.

Sources within the EFCC said it was after the lawmaker learnt of the petition that he hurriedly supplied only Akwa Ibom State with 75,000 pieces in January.

It was alleged that Nwaoboshi awarded the contracts worth N3,483,144,000 to15 companies registered in the names of his relatives and proxies, some of which are not even registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission.

The companies are Benchmark Construction and Projects Limited; Milestone Allied Builders Limited; Edendoma Stars Intl; Isumabe U.K Global Ventures; Nelpat (Nigeria) Company; Edrihide Company; Antlers Construction and Allied Works Limited; and AGH-Rown Ventures.

Others are NOAN Integrated Services Limited; De-Towers Construction and Allied Services; Eastern Wrought Iron Limited; Franstine Nigeria Enterprises; Brant Technologies; Omozuabho Global Resources and Bugstruct Limited.

Nwaoboshi, who has also been linked to the misapplication of a N1.2bn bank loan, has also been accused of a N1.5bn contract scam involving the Delta State Government.

PUNCH reports that a detective at the EFCC told its correspondent that in 2014, the lawmaker, through his company, Bilderberg Enterprises Limited, received a contract of N1.5bn to supply brand new construction equipment to the Delta State Direct Labour Agency.

However, the lawmaker allegedly supplied the state government with used goods and passed them off as new.

As part of investigations, the EFCC was said to have written the Nigeria Customs Service to verify if the equipment were new or not.

The newspaper reports that in a letter the Customs noted that the equipment, including trucks, which were imported were merely refurbished.

Nwaoboshi allegedly used part of the diverted funds to buy a 12-storey building at 27 Marina Road, Apapa, Lagos.

The building, which belonged to the Delta State Government, was bought at the cost of N805m.