Immediate past Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) Engr. Timber Wabote has denied reports of his arrest by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
Rumours filtered on Wednesday that Wabote was arrested over NCDMB’s investments in a modular refinery conceptualised by Atlantic International Refinery and Petrochemical Limited for Brass Island in Bayelsa State.
However, Wabote told journalists that he honoured the agency’s invitation on Tuesday and left by 6:30pm after writing his statement.
He said: “I was supposed to go there on the 29th of October but I wrote to them to say that I would be travelling out of the country and I will come when I return. Yesterday, I walked in and they took my statement and I came home and slept.”
He explained that there was no fraud case involving Atlantic International Refinery and Petrochemical Limited, rather it is the case of a company that is having cash flow challenges.
Wabote also debunked the allegation that NCDMB under his leadership made a bad investment in Atlantic International Refinery and Petrochemical Limited.
According to him, “We invested in about 17 different opportunities and most of them are progressing, the only one that has a challenge is the Atlantic refinery. The promoter has not walked away from the project. He has written to the NCDMB, telling the board to give him a plan so he can buy them out. Even in the board meeting they have taken a resolution.”
It was reported on Tuesday that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) apprehended Timber Kesiye Wabote, the former Executive Secretary of the Nigeria Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), in connection with an alleged $35 million fraud tied to the Brass Project.