The senator representing Delta North District, Peter Nwaoboshi, has claimed that the properties sealed by the federal government on Saturday do not belong to him.
He, however, admitted that the frozen accounts are his
He challenged the Chairman of the Special Presidential Investigation Panel (SPIP), Okoi Obono-Obla, to disclose to Nigerians the funds they found in his accounts so that they could decide if they were too big for a senator to own.
According to a ChannelsTv report, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) lawmaker said this on Monday in Abuja.
“None of the properties sealed or which they have a forfeiture order is my properties. I have said that before and I am saying it again that they are not my properties.
“I don’t own a property in Warri, I don’t own a property in Lagos. I don’t own a property in Maitama, Abuja and all these accounts.
“I challenge SPIP to publish what is in all these accounts for Nigerians to see how much I own and whether the money in these accounts is too big for a senator,” he said.
The disclosure is against the backdrop of the recent clampdown by the anti-graft agency, sealing houses, filling stations, residential buildings and other properties it said had been traced to Mr Nwaoboshi.
Mr Obono-Obla said the properties were located in Warri, Asaba, Asaba, Lagos, and Abuja.
The move came a week after a federal court in Abuja placed an interim forfeiture order on 14 properties and 22 bank accounts said to have been traced to Mr Nwaoboshi.
The head of the presidential panel also recently accused the Delta politician of falling to declare several properties and bank accounts he owned in his asset declaration filings against the code of conduct regulations.
The panel also wrote to several banks, including Zenith Bank, UBA, Sterling Bank and Access Bank, to deny Mr Nwaoboshi further access to all 22 accounts traced to him across their institutions.
The SPIP was set up in August 2017 by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo. The panel’s operations in the past have been enmeshed in controversy with Mr Osinbajo once ordering the panel to suspend its operations.
