Award of Contracts: ICPC Grills Ex-Labour Minister, Ngige
The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) has questioned the former Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, over the award of contracts and jobs racketeering at the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF).
ICPC spokesman, Demola Bakare, confirmed that Ngige was at the Commission’s headquarters to provide details of an ongoing investigation.
However, he did not give further details of the allegation, though he added that the ex-minister may be invited again until the investigation is concluded.
Bakare said the former Anambra State governor was not detained when he reported to the commission on Wednesday.
ICPC had earlier invited some top officials of the NSITF to question them about the alleged payment of an ₦47 million gratuity to the immediate past Managing Director of the agency, Maureen Allagoa when she was still in active service.
At the same time, Ngige’s successor, Senator Simon Lalong, had set up a special investigative committee to probe the alleged irregularities in different contract awards up to ₦1.8 billion in the agency.
The ICPC and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) have since waded into the matter, leading to the invitation of Ngige.
This newspaper had earlier reported how the ICPC invited some top officials of the NSITF for questioning over payment of N47m gratuity to the immediate-past MD.
In the same vein, the immediate-past Minister of Labour, Simon Lalong, who is now in the Senate, set up a special investigative committee to probe alleged irregularities in different contract awards to the tune of N1.8bn in the agency.
ICPC sources who were familiar with the matter told this newspaper that Ngige was invited to shed more light on the award and abandonment of multi-million naira electronic NSITF popularly known as e-NSITF, for which Ngige got approval from the Federal Executive Council (FEC) under former President Buhari.
