‘I’m the most investigated ex-gov’ — Uduaghan says fear of EFCC not behind defection

Emmanuel Uduaghan, former governor of Delta, says he did not defect to the All Progressives Congress (APC) to be shielded from investigation.

Uduaghan confirmed his exit from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) after attending a meeting of the APC national caucus in Abuja on Tuesday.

He later said in a statement that he joined the ruling party to attract development and bring a permanent solution to the Niger Delta crisis.

Speaking during a Channels TV programme on Friday, the ex-governor said the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has exhaustively investigated him but found nothing incriminating.

The programme anchor had asked him to respond to insinuations that he joined APC “to escape the EFCC”.

Uduaghan, who governed Delta from 2007 to 2015, said: “I am the most investigated former governor. I have gone to the EFCC in Lagos, in Port Harcourt, in Benin, in Abuja. So what kind of investigations are you talking about?

“The EFCC had come to Delta … in the last three years, took the SSG’s office for three days, it has never happened in any state; checked files, arrested some people.”

He said Delta has the highest number of petitions at the EFCC and that on some occasions, he was probed over the same issue more than once.

“There is virtually nothing I did in Delta that has not been investigated by the EFCC,” he said.

“Sometimes twice because one person writes, another person writes on same thing. So what sort of investigation is going to happen again?”

He said the anti-graft agency “has virtually turned Delta state upside down” and so, “it (his defection) has nothing to do with EFCC investigations”.