The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has arrested Timber Wabote, former executive secretary of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), over allegations linked to a failed $35 million Bayelsa refinery project.<\/p>\n
EFCC spokesperson Dele Oyewale confirmed the arrest on Thursday.<\/span><\/p>\n Wabote faces accusations of misappropriating public funds intended to boost local energy production through a refinery project. <\/span><\/p>\n Reports from Vanguard<\/a> reveal that the NCDMB, under Wabote\u2019s leadership, allocated $35 million for energy infrastructure development in Brass Local Government Area, Bayelsa. <\/span><\/p>\n However, no progress has been seen on the ground.<\/span><\/p>\n Wabote\u2019s arrest follows the EFCC\u2019s detention of Akintoye Adeoye Akindele, Managing Director of Atlantic International Refinery and Petrochemical Limited, for alleged misappropriation, money laundering, and diversion of the $35 million. <\/span><\/p>\n An EFCC insider disclosed, \u201cThe NCDMB, under Wabote\u2019s watch, paid Akindele to build a 2,000-barrel-per-day (BPD) refinery, jetty, gas plant, power plant, data centre, and tank farm at Brass Free Trade Zone (FTZ) in Okpoama Community, Brass LGA of Bayelsa State.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Despite payments dating back to December 2020, Akindele reportedly abandoned the project, leaving little to show for the enormous sum. <\/span><\/p>\n Preliminary EFCC investigations also reveal that Wabote\u2019s NCDMB financed 17 projects, including the stalled Brass refinery.<\/span><\/p>\n In recent months, public outcry over misappropriated funds in Nigeria\u2019s energy sector has intensified. <\/span><\/p>\n An FIJ investigation noted that the House of Representatives summoned three ministers over over $2 billion<\/a> spent on renewable energy with limited results. <\/span><\/p>\n Another FIJ report<\/a> highlighted how Yenagoa residents have suffered a power outage since July due to vandalized transmission towers<\/a>, with Bayelsa authorities noting the lack of federal assistance.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has arrested Timber Wabote, former executive secretary of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), over allegations linked to a failed $35 million Bayelsa refinery project.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20847,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[9499,9500,75,9501,9503,100,9502],"class_list":["post-20846","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-35-million","tag-bayelsa-refinery","tag-efcc","tag-former-ncmb-boss","tag-massive-fraud-probe","tag-scam","tag-timber-wabote"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20846"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20846"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20846\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20851,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20846\/revisions\/20851"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/20847"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}