A witness for the prosecution told the FCT High Court in Gwarinpa, Abuja, on Thursday that contractors for the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) met all the requirements for contracts given by former Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige. The ex-minister is on trial for criminal activities, including abuse of office and taking bribes related to these contracts.
Orwusoro Maduka, who was a director of procurement in the Ministry of Labour and Employment from 2019 to 2023, is the fourth witness testifying against Mr Ngige. He faces eight charges, including accepting bribes from NSITF contractors and giving special treatment to friends when awarding contracts.
Mr Maduka, who has finished his examination-in-chief, spoke about how contracts were awarded and how contractors followed the rules and tax laws while answering questions from Mr Ngige’s lawyer, Patrick Ikwueto, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN).
He said the contractors “had their CAC, tax clearance, and necessary documents to contract for the Federal Government of Nigeria. After evaluating the bids, technical evaluation, Olde English Consolidated Limited was recommended because they had the lowest financial bids.”
It is still early in the trial to see how the witness’ comments will affect the case brought by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
EFCC has raised concerns about how the contracts were awarded. Some charges focus on receiving bribes and other claims that do not directly relate to the contracting process.
Still, the question of whether Mr Ngige had the right to award NSITF contracts keeps coming up in the trial. Mr Ngige insists he followed a presidential directive to do so. This claim has sparked arguments, with the EFCC trying to challenge it.
Apart from process issues, the EFCC claims Mr Ngige awarded contracts to different companies and accepted bribes from NSITF contractors through “his organisation, called Dr Chris Nwabueze Ngige Campaign Organisation, from Cezimo Nigeria Limited (Zenith Bank Account Number 1011901119).”
He allegedly committed these offences while he was Minister of Labour and Employment during former President Buhari’s administration. The former governor of Anambra State and ex-senator denies all the charges.
Mr Maduka also stated, while answering questions from the defence lawyer, that there was no outside influence on the Ministerial Tenders Board (MTB), of which he was a member, in how they evaluated the bids.
When asked if the contractors did not complete their work, the witness replied that “it was outside my job or purview” to follow up.
Then, Mr Ikwueto asked the witness about a presidential directive to move the procurement function from the NSITF to the Ministry of Labour and Employment. But EFCC’s lawyer, Silvannus Tahir, a SAN, objected.
He told the court that Mr Ikwueto had been asking witnesses about a document that he did not submit as evidence so the prosecution could check it and confirm its accuracy during the trial.
Mr Tahir pointed out that the previous witness and even Mr Maduka denied seeing the document. He asked the court to tell Mr Ikwueto to submit it as evidence.
In response, Mr Ikwueto said he tried to submit the document, but Mr Tahir objected because it was not certified yet, and they were still in the certification process.
Mr Tahir then asked Mr Ikwueto to provide him with the documents and asked the court to postpone the trial so the defence could give him the documents.
Mr Ikwueto agreed to this, and the trial judge, Maryam Hassan, postponed the case until 2 July.
The presidential directive has been a major issue in previous court sessions. On Wednesday, Mr Maduka said he never saw the physical copy of the presidential directive about NSITF’s procurement activities.
“There was a presidential order as directed by the minister (Mr Ngige) that the president approved following resolutions of the panel; one of such is that the procurement function of the NSITF be sent to the ministry for proper oversight.”
Even though he did not see it, he explained why he followed the order.
“No, I never saw the directive physically. Although there were correspondences signed by the minister alluding to the directives.”
The second prosecution witness, Kelly Nwagha, former Acting Managing Director of the NSITF, testified earlier this year that he was only shown part of the directive.
Mr Nwagha said, “Mr Ngige said it was a presidential report; I did not see any reason to doubt him.” But when asked if he would recognize the report, he replied, “I would not recognize it because I did not see the report; he (Mr Ngige) only showed me the copy and withdrew it.”
In 2020, former President Muhammadu Buhari approved a new NSITF management board after an audit investigation found violations of the Public Procurement Act and Financial Regulations within the agency.
Mr Maduka was part of the panel that led the investigations. After they finished, the panel recommended that the NSITF’s procurement functions be moved to the ministry for some time.
Still, Mr Ngige’s defence team has used the disputed presidential directive to argue that he had the right to oversee procurement for the NSITF, which is one of the parastatals under his ministry.
But the EFCC, through one of its witnesses, pointed to a letter from the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) to challenge Mr Ngige’s claim. They insisted that the BPP has the sole legal right over NSITF contracts.
The BPP was created to regulate and oversee federal public procurement to ensure transparency, competition, and value for money in government contracts.
This position has been met with contradictions, as Mr Maduka recently testified.
On Tuesday, he told the court that after Mr Ngige shared the directives to have the ministry take over procurement functions, a Parastatal Tender Board Committee was created. One of the members, the witness’s deputy (Joyce), served as the secretary.
Mr Maduka said the BPP knew about this arrangement. The witness explained that the Parastatal Tender Board Committee and BTB handle procurement independently but work together. But the PTB had a limit on how much they could award in contracts, and those contracts were sent to the ministry for approval.
He also testified that the contracts given to Shale Atlantic for consultancy services, over N48 million, and N49 million, Stakeholders engagement for safety and health, N40 million, Jeff and Xris N47 million, Zitacom Limited N48 and N49 million, Cezimo N49 million and Olde English Consolidated N49 million did not go over the PTB’s limit.
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