Senator Peter Nwaoboshi, a former Peoples Democratic Party senator, accused of the N3.6 billion Niger Delta Development Commission contract scam, has joined a gale of defectors into the ruling All Progressives Congress.

Mr Nwaoboshi, who represents Delta North Senatorial District at the National Assembly, was presented to President Muhammadu Buhari and the APC leadership by the Deputy President of the Senate and fellow Delta senator, Ovie Omo-Agege, at the State House in Abuja on Friday.

“You are welcome to the progressives family,” Mr Buhari, who touts his government’s anti-corruption stance, said while welcoming Mr Nwaoboshi to the APC.

Prior to his election as a senator, Mr Nwabaoshi led the Delta State PDP as chairman for six years.

In June 2020, the NDDC in a statement by its spokesman, Charles Odili, said the APC greenhorn, Nwabaoshi, used 11 companies as fronts to secure contracts worth N3.6 billion in September 2016.

Mr Nwaoboshi was then the chairman of the Senate committee on Niger Delta affairs.

Mr Odili described the scam as the “biggest single case of looting of the commission’s resources.”

The decision of Mr Nwaoboshi to join the APC is a clear indication that the APC’s efforts are yielding fruits, notes Mr Omo-Agege.

During a House of Representatives probe of NDDC finances last July, Niger Delta Minister, Goodswill Akpabio accused lawmakers of hijacking NDDC jobs without commensurate delivery.

“Honourable minister, it’s okay, off your mic, off your mic!” The probe committee chairman on the day, Thomas Ereyi-Tobi, had beckoned on Mr Akpabio as the latter sought to open a can of worms.

Former acting managing director of the commission, Daniel Pondei, had earlier dramatically fainted as he struggled to answer grilling questions from the lawmakers. Mr Pondei was summarily sacked five months later without providing answers to the huge corruption queries.

Mr Akpabio recently disclosed that the final audit of the NDDC will be ready by the end of July.