The Senator representing Delta North Senatorial District, Peter Nwaoboshi, on Sunday denied ownership of the 11 houses and 12 out of the 22 bank accounts frozen the Federal High Court in Abuja.
The court presided over by Justice Taiwo Taiwo made the forfeiture order on July 2 but a certified true copy of the order was only issued on July 5.
The judge issued the order following an ex parte application by the Special Presidential Investigative Panel for the Recovery of Public Property.
The ex parte application was moved by the panel’s lawyer, Celsus Ukpong, who described the assets as suspicious or suspected to be far beyond the legitimate income of Nwaoboshi.
But in a statement issued on Sunday, Nwaoboshi denied ownership of the houses and bank accounts.
He said, “Although I am yet to be served with the proceedings of the court. I only read in the print media. I don’t have 22 bank accounts. That is not to say that there is any law that forbids me to own up that number of bank accounts or more than that in Nigeria. Most of the alleged bank accounts belong to companies of which they thought I have interest in but I am not a signatory, a director, or a shareholder in any of the companies.
“It is therefore wicked, malicious, frivolous, scandalous, and a height of irresponsibility. It therefore portray the level of the understanding of the law by the leadership of the SPIB. I challenge the SPIB to publish the names of the shareholders, directors, and signatories to the accounts for the public to judge.
“12 of the bank accounts belong to companies while most of the other 12 accounts were opened for me by the various banks representatives operating in the National Assembly when I became a senator, are already dormant . Some of the banks officials even used their own money to open those accounts. Some of them I don’t know. Some of the banks are even lobbying us with loans now and they would even tell you that they have credited your accounts. All you just do is to sign the papers. They will just open the accounts on their own and come and give you the documents.
“We will file the necessary papers at the courts. We shall take all the legal actions because we have already appealed the case”.
OWEDE AGBAJILEKE, Abuja
