Alleged N2.2bn Fraud: Court grants Ngige bail

Ngige

Six days after he was remanded in prison custody, a former Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige, who is facing an eight-count corruption charge, on Thursday secured bail from a High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, sitting at Gwarinpa, Abuja. The court, in a ruling delivered by trial Justice Maryam Hassan, adopted terms of an administrative bail the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) earlier granted to the embattled erstwhile minister.

As part of his bail conditions, the defendant was ordered to produce a surety that must be a civil servant not below the rank of a director.

According to the court, the surety must equally be an owner of a landed property in the FCT, even as it ordered the defendant to surrender his international passport and not travel outside the country without permission.

Justice Hassan overruled a preliminary objection the anti-graft agency filed to oppose the ex-minister’s application for bail.

She held that the court had the power to exercise its discretion on the issue of bail.

The court held that such discretion must be discharged judicially and judiciously without the imposition of conditions that would appear unreasonable and arbitrary.

It subsequently adjourned the matter till January 28 and 29, 2026, for trial.

Ngige, who was in office as a minister from November 11, 2015, to May 29, 2023, was on December 12 arraigned before the court by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, following his alleged complicity in contract fraud totalling over N2.2 billion.

Though he pleaded not guilty to the charge after he was docked, the trial judge ordered his remand at the Kuje Correctional Center in Abuja, pending the determination of his bail application.

Part of the charge against him bordered on abuse of office, as well as an allegation that he accepted kickbacks from firms that were awarded contracts by the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund, NSITF.