Witness admits NSITF contracts breached procurement law in Ngige trial
Witness admits NSITF contracts breached procurement law in Ngige trial
A prosecution witness in the trial of a former Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige, has told the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, that he was not aware of the 2018 Ministerial Audit Investigation Panel into the activities of the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) when he benefited from contracts that were not bid for.
The witness, Mr Pedro Torwuese Chellen, an entrepreneur and project manager with Imanil Hag Nigeria Limited, further told the court he did not know that a Presidential Panel on Financial Procurement Breaches was again set up in 2020 as part of the minister’s efforts to make the system free of corruption.
He stated that his petition to the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) triggered the investigation, which began in August 2023, into alleged corruption, contract fraud, and irregularities in the NSITF.
Ngige was arraigned by the EFCC on five counts of allegedly using his position to confer “unfair advantages” on five companies belonging to his political associates and friends.
In his evidence-in-chief, Chellen told the court that a company which did not participate in the bidding process was awarded a contract worth N80 million for the renovation of the NSITF office in Makurdi, Benue State, during the tenure of Dr Chris Ngige as minister.
The witness, who was led in evidence by the prosecution counsel, Sylvanus Tahir (SAN), narrated how his company had bid for an advertised NSITF office Makurdi renovation contract in 2017 for N85 million, which he said was the lowest responsive bid. He said he was surprised when, after three months of waiting, he was informed by the Head of Procurement, Engineer Lawal, that another company, Altitude Global Limited, which was not among those that bid, had been awarded the job for N114 million.
Following the discovery, he said he petitioned the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) in respect of NSITF in 2019. Acting under pressure for reconciliation, one Engineer Lawal and the NSITF Managing Director, Pastor Bayo Somefun, allegedly awarded his company three contracts amounting to 60 per cent of the value of the one it lost.
He said the discovery compelled his company to brief its lawyers to petition the EFCC, alleging irregularities in the contract award process.
Chellen disclosed that, following the petition, he was invited by the EFCC, where he made statements and submitted relevant documents to investigators.
Under cross-examination by the lead defence counsel, Patrick Ikwueto (SAN), the witness admitted that he did not write his statement at the EFCC in one day, on August 8, 2025, because he was sick.
On further cross-examination, he was shown his statement, which indicated that one Mustafa Mukaila wrote the statement because Chellen had explained that he could not write in English, and that the statements were written over two days – 8 and 9 August 2025.
When asked whether he bid for the three swapped contracts, he said no. He gave the same answer when asked whether he saw any advertisement for the three contracts for the supply of shredders, Gubabi safes and “deading” of South-South offices. When the defence lawyer asked him the total value, he said it was N25 million (N10 million each, except for the Gubabi safe contract, which was N5 million).
He further agreed that the contracts were awarded to him in breach of the procurement process and law, and that this made him, Engineer Lawal and Pastor Somefun collaborators in corruption in the organisation he is calling on the EFCC to investigate for contract scams and corruption.
When asked whether he knew it was that kind of situation that made Dr Ngige, then minister, institute a Ministerial Audit Investigation Panel into the activities of the NSITF (the Awute Panel) in 2018, he replied that he did not know about the panel.
He also claimed that he did not know that a Presidential Panel on Financial Procurement Breaches was again set up in 2020 as part of the minister’s efforts to make the system free of corruption, following the Auditor-General’s report that indicted the NSITF for the years 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020, during which the agency also did not have audited reports.
He also stated that he had no contact with Ngige as minister, and that the injustice his company suffered was not because of Dr Ngige, but the NSITF management.
Meanwhile, the trial has been further adjourned to 26 and 27 February 2026, at the instance of the prosecution, to enable them to bring more witnesses, including a former acting Managing Director of the NSITF, Dr Kelly Nwagha.
