Senator Peter Nwaoboshi, a lawyer, was the political adviser to former Delta StateGovernor, Chief James Ibori and the Chairmanof the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the
state. He currently represents Delta North in
the Senate and Chairman, Senate Committee on Niger Delta Affairs.In this interview with journalists, Senator
Nwaoboshi spoke on allegations made against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, that he perpetrated fraud in the execution of the N2.1 billion contract
awarded his company, Biderberg Enterprises Limited by the Delta State Government in2010, among others.
Excerpts:
WHAT is your reaction to the N2.1 billion contract fraud allegation levelled against you and your brother by the EFCC?
This is the first time I am hearing about this probe. And that is what we have always said that the EFCC needs to be overhauled.
Why?
Because I spoke up against EFCC. The other day, I spoke about (Professor Itse) Sagay that is why you are hearing all this type of thing; you didn’t hear it before. But as a Nigerian, I
will speak out.
My friend Dino will say, ‘You speak the truth you die, you lie you die’. I am the wrong person to be taken on because I will keep on speaking the truth. My people sent me here to
speak on their behalf.
Nwaoboshi Supply of equipment
Now let me take issues that they have raised.They said there was a contract of N1.5 billion for the supply of equipment to Ministry of Works and Ministry of Environment. The
question I ask Nigerians, who is complaining after seven years? Is it the Delta State Government or by a crooked petition by some individuals to malign me?
I was a director in Bilderberg Enterprises Limited before I became a senator. And I was not a government functionary. I was not working in government at the time. I am not
in a position to award contracts. But I must eat. And so, I have my own companies. Delta State Government advertised the contract, the company in which I have interest tendered for that contract and was awarded the contract after due process was followed by the Tenders Board of the Delta State Government.
The records are there. When the contract was awarded to us, we brought the equipment from China. And what I hear now is that the equipment were used equipment. The manufacturers of this equipment are alive. The serial numbers of these equipment are there. EFCC can contact the manufacturers in China with the serial number of the equipment to
find out whether those equipment weresecond-hand or fairly used.
Because the company did not buy any of the equipment from the open market. The company paid directly to the manufacturers of these goods in China and the manufacturer
manufactured and shipped the goods to
Nigeria.
So, if you want to know whether these equipment were fairly used or not, go to the manufacturer, find out the date they were manufactured, find out with the serial number, when it was shipped to Nigeria when the Delta State Government took possession of them.
I have called the manufacturers in China and they said nobody asked them any question, nobody has written to them but what they want to do is to malign my name. We did not only sell to Delta State Government, we sold to individuals who wanted to buy all these equipment.
We have in our possession report from the Ministry of Works certifying the equipment as brand new equipment. We have documents in our possession engineers from the Ministry of
Housing, Environment, Direct Labour Agency, Auditor-General of Delta State certifying that these equipment are brand new equipment.
They did not obtain these certificates from Delta State Government, all they want to do is malign me in the newspaper.
Multiple bank accounts
This is what we have been talking about, you prosecute people in the Press, run them down before you go to court. They have already found me and my brother guilty before
charging us to court,
No comments:
Post a Comment