ICPC grills Ngige over ‘contract racketeering’ at NSITF

The Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) on Wednesday quizzed Chris Ngige, a former minister of labour and employment, over alleged wrongdoing.

Ngige, who served as minister in the cabinet of former President Muhammadu Buhari, is accused of malpractices in the award of contracts at the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF), it was learnt.

The fund is supervised by the federal ministry of labour and employment – which Ngige was in charge of for eight years.

The NSITF has been plagued with a number of corruption allegations over the years.

In January 2023, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) arraigned Adebayo Aderibigbe, a former general manager and head of legal services of the NSITF, over alleged fraud.

Aderibigbe was accused of obtaining the sum of N60,400,000 by false pretence.

Speaking with TheCable on Thursday, Demola Bakare, spokesperson of ICPC, said the former minister is “assisting” the commission with an investigation, but did not go into details of it.

Bakare said the former governor of Anambra state was not detained by the anti-graft agency.

“He was not arrested, he was not detained. He is helping us out with the investigation,” the spokesperson said.

“He is assisting in the investigation, but he was not detained.”