Engr. Simbi Wabote, the immediate previous executive secretary of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), has rejected rumors of being arrested by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
Reports said on Wednesday that Wabote was arrested for NCDMB’s investments in a modular refinery designed by Atlantic International Refinery and Petrochemical Limited on Brass Island in Bayelsa State.
Wabote, on the other hand, told journalists that he accepted the agency’s offer and left after completing his statement at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday.
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 Atlantic International Refinery and Petrochemical Limited was not a fraud case but rather a case of a company 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.
He says, “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.”
