A prosecution witness on Wednesday told a Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court sitting in Gwarimpa, Abuja, that a company which did not participate in the bidding process was awarded an N80 million contract for the renovation of the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) office in Makurdi.
The witness, Mr Pedro Torwuese Chellen (PW1), gave the testimony during the trial of a former Governor of Anambra State and former Minister of Labour, Chris Ngige. The case is being heard by Justice M. A. Hassan.
Led in evidence by prosecution counsel, Sylvanus Tahir, SAN, Chellen, an entrepreneur and project manager of Imanil Haq Nigeria Limited, told the court that his company participated in the bidding process for the NSITF Makurdi office renovation after the project was advertised.
He said his company later discovered that the contract was awarded to another firm that did not take part in the bidding exercise.
“My company briefed our lawyers to petition the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) after we discovered that the company that awarded the contract was not among those that bid for it,” Chellen told the court.
According to him, following the petition, he was invited by the EFCC, where his statements were taken. He identified the petition and the bid documents attached to it in court, which were subsequently admitted in evidence as Exhibit P1.
The witness further narrated that after his company lost the bid, he wrote to the management of the NSITF seeking details of how the contract was awarded, but received no response.
“When nothing came out of it, I appealed to the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP), where it was revealed that the contract was awarded to a company that did not participate in the bidding process,” he said.
During cross-examination by defence counsel, P. I. N. Ikwueto, SAN, Chellen disclosed that his petition was directed against the management board of the NSITF.
He added that his complaint also covered the change in the project’s scope and cost. “The title of the contract was changed from ‘Renovation of Makurdi Office’ to ‘Construction of Makurdi Office,’” he said, noting that the initial contract sum of N80 million was later increased to N120 million by the NSITF management board.
While acknowledging that he made his statement to the EFCC in 2023, the witness told the court that there was “massive corruption in the NSITF.”
He, however, admitted that he never attended any meeting of the NSITF management board, adding that he later learned through media reports that the board was reconstituted.
Justice Hassan adjourned the matter until January 29, 2026, for continuation of the hearing.
