A High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), sitting at Gwarinpa, on Wednesday commenced full-blown hearing on the eight-count corruption charge the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) preferred against a former Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige.
The EFCC opened its case by presenting its first witness, whose petition led to the exposure of alleged contract fraud in the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF), an agency that was under Ngige’s ministerial supervision.
Ngige, who was in office as a minister from November 11, 2015, to May 29, 2023, was arraigned on December 12, 2025, before the court on allegations of abuse of office, acceptance of gifts, and contract irregularities at the NSITF to the tune of over N2.2 billion.
The charge included an allegation that he collected kickbacks from firms that were awarded contracts by the NSITF.
It was alleged that the former minister used his position to confer unfair advantage to his associates by awarding contracts to their companies.
The defendant, by his action, was said to have committed offences punishable under various sections of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act, 2000.
At the resumed proceedings on Wednesday, the prosecution witness, Mr. Pedro Chele, narrated in court how he wrote petitions both to the EFCC and the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) after uncovering that the NSITF board had sidelined due process in its contract award process.
Even though the defence lawyer, Mr. Patrick Ikwueto, SAN, queried the admissibility of the petitions, trial Justice Maryam Hassan admitted them in evidence and marked them as Exhibit P1.
Ngige’s lawyer, Ikwueto, SAN, said he would, in his final written address, give reasons why he opposed the admission of the documents as part of the proof of evidence in the case.
Meanwhile, led in evidence by EFCC’s counsel, Sylvanus Tahir, SAN, the witness, who identified himself as an entrepreneur and project manager with Imanihad Nigeria Limited, told the court that sometime in 2017, his company responded to an advertisement in The Guardian newspaper for the renovation of the NSITF office in Makurdi, Benue State.
According to him, his company was pre-qualified and submitted its financial bid for the project but did not receive any feedback for an unusually long time.
“After the conclusion of the submissions, it took longer than expected. So I wrote to the management of the NSITF concerning the contract,” Chele added.
He told the court that though his letter was received by the NSITF, it, however, failed to give any satisfactory explanation for the delayed feedback—a situation that led him to escalate the matter to the BPP.
Following his letter, the witness told the court that the BPP wrote to the NSITF demanding details of the contract, a request he said was declined.
The witness said he eventually found out that the said contract was awarded to Altitude Global Links Limited, a company he said insisted did not participate in the bidding process.
“Later, I found out that the company that the contract was awarded to was not part of the process,” he told the court.
Upon the discovery, Chele said his lawyers had petitioned the EFCC, leading to an investigation in 2023.
Answering questions under cross-examination, the PW-1 admitted that his petition was against the management of the NSITF and not individual members of the board.
He further confirmed before the court that the original contract for the renovation of the Makurdi office of the NSITF, for which he tendered an N85 million bid, was later altered to a contract for completion of the building, with the cost increased to N120 million.
The witness told the court that he never received a letter of award for the Makurdi project nor executed any agreement with the NSITF in respect of it.
