{"id":124449,"date":"2025-12-16T06:25:28","date_gmt":"2025-12-16T05:25:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/?p=124449"},"modified":"2025-12-16T06:25:28","modified_gmt":"2025-12-16T05:25:28","slug":"%e2%82%a62-2bn-fraud-case-ngige-remanded-in-kuje-till-december-18","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/exclusive\/%e2%82%a62-2bn-fraud-case-ngige-remanded-in-kuje-till-december-18\/","title":{"rendered":"\u20a62.2bn Fraud Case: Ngige Remanded in Kuje Till December 18\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">By Lizzy Chirkpi<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">A Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court has fixed December 18, 2025 to rule on the bail application of former Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, who is facing trial over alleged corruption involving more than \u20a62.2 billion.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Justice Maryam Hassan adjourned the ruling on Monday after hearing arguments from both the prosecution and defence in an eight-count charge filed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Pending the court\u2019s decision, Ngige will remain in custody at the Kuje Correctional Centre.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The former Anambra State governor, who served as minister between November 11, 2015, and May 29, 2023, pleaded not guilty to the charges, which include abuse of office and alleged receipt of kickbacks linked to contracts awarded by the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF).<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">According to the EFCC, Ngige allegedly used his position to confer undue advantage on companies connected to his associates.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Opposing the bail application, EFCC counsel Sylvanus Tahir, SAN, told the court that Ngige was a flight risk, arguing that he had breached the conditions of an earlier administrative bail.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">He said the former minister was permitted to travel abroad for medical treatment but failed to report back to the anti-graft agency afterward.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Tahir added that Ngige had also not returned the international passport released to him for the trip, claiming that the assertion that the passport was lost only surfaced after his re-arrest.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Describing the bail request as \u201cfrivolous,\u201d Tahir urged the court to dismiss it, stressing that the alleged offences carry a possible minimum jail term of five years if proven.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">In response, Ngige\u2019s counsel, Patrick Ikwueto, SAN, appealed to the court to grant bail on health grounds, insisting that his client posed no risk of absconding or interfering with witnesses.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cThe trial will examine how the contracts were awarded,\u201d Ikwueto told the court. \u201cThese are not charges of terrorism or treason. He is a known public figure, and the court can set any condition for bail.\u201d<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">He further noted that Ngige had already spent three days in EFCC custody before his arraignment and maintained that the offences were bailable.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Justice Hassan adjourned proceedings after listening to both sides and fixed December 18 for the delivery of a ruling on the bail application.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Ngige was formally arraigned last Friday and remanded in custody after pleading not guilty to all eight counts.<\/div>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Related Posts generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Lizzy Chirkpi A Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court has fixed December 18, 2025 to rule on the bail application of former Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige,&hellip;<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Related Posts generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":124450,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-124449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>\u20a62.2bn Fraud Case: Ngige Remanded in Kuje Till December 18\u00a0 - Pointblank News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/exclusive\/\u20a62-2bn-fraud-case-ngige-remanded-in-kuje-till-december-18\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u20a62.2bn Fraud Case: Ngige Remanded in Kuje Till December 18\u00a0 - Pointblank News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Lizzy Chirkpi A Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court has fixed December 18, 2025 to rule on the bail application of former Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige,&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/exclusive\/\u20a62-2bn-fraud-case-ngige-remanded-in-kuje-till-december-18\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Pointblank News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-12-16T05:25:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/598786924_1319596710212547_6742960803308644178_n.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"960\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"540\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Our Reporter\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Our Reporter\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/exclusive\/%e2%82%a62-2bn-fraud-case-ngige-remanded-in-kuje-till-december-18\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/exclusive\/%e2%82%a62-2bn-fraud-case-ngige-remanded-in-kuje-till-december-18\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Our Reporter\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/#\/schema\/person\/ba61acbe7e8967bcf3f3ba603d9db23c\"},\"headline\":\"\u20a62.2bn Fraud Case: Ngige Remanded in Kuje Till December 18\u00a0\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-12-16T05:25:28+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/exclusive\/%e2%82%a62-2bn-fraud-case-ngige-remanded-in-kuje-till-december-18\/\"},\"wordCount\":396,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/exclusive\/%e2%82%a62-2bn-fraud-case-ngige-remanded-in-kuje-till-december-18\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/598786924_1319596710212547_6742960803308644178_n.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Exclusive\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/exclusive\/%e2%82%a62-2bn-fraud-case-ngige-remanded-in-kuje-till-december-18\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/exclusive\/%e2%82%a62-2bn-fraud-case-ngige-remanded-in-kuje-till-december-18\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/exclusive\/%e2%82%a62-2bn-fraud-case-ngige-remanded-in-kuje-till-december-18\/\",\"name\":\"\u20a62.2bn Fraud Case: Ngige Remanded in Kuje Till December 18\u00a0 - Pointblank News\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/exclusive\/%e2%82%a62-2bn-fraud-case-ngige-remanded-in-kuje-till-december-18\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/exclusive\/%e2%82%a62-2bn-fraud-case-ngige-remanded-in-kuje-till-december-18\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/598786924_1319596710212547_6742960803308644178_n.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-12-16T05:25:28+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/#\/schema\/person\/ba61acbe7e8967bcf3f3ba603d9db23c\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/exclusive\/%e2%82%a62-2bn-fraud-case-ngige-remanded-in-kuje-till-december-18\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/exclusive\/%e2%82%a62-2bn-fraud-case-ngige-remanded-in-kuje-till-december-18\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/exclusive\/%e2%82%a62-2bn-fraud-case-ngige-remanded-in-kuje-till-december-18\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/598786924_1319596710212547_6742960803308644178_n.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/598786924_1319596710212547_6742960803308644178_n.jpg\",\"width\":960,\"height\":540},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/exclusive\/%e2%82%a62-2bn-fraud-case-ngige-remanded-in-kuje-till-december-18\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"\u20a62.2bn Fraud Case: Ngige Remanded in Kuje Till December 18\u00a0\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/\",\"name\":\"Pointblank News\",\"description\":\"Just the news\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/#\/schema\/person\/ba61acbe7e8967bcf3f3ba603d9db23c\",\"name\":\"Our Reporter\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/83b3820ef93d502ae3a617b2c881ca42?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/83b3820ef93d502ae3a617b2c881ca42?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Our Reporter\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/author\/admin\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"\u20a62.2bn Fraud Case: Ngige Remanded in Kuje Till December 18\u00a0 - Pointblank News","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/exclusive\/\u20a62-2bn-fraud-case-ngige-remanded-in-kuje-till-december-18\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"\u20a62.2bn Fraud Case: Ngige Remanded in Kuje Till December 18\u00a0 - Pointblank News","og_description":"By Lizzy Chirkpi A Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court has fixed December 18, 2025 to rule on the bail application of former Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige,&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/exclusive\/\u20a62-2bn-fraud-case-ngige-remanded-in-kuje-till-december-18\/","og_site_name":"Pointblank News","article_published_time":"2025-12-16T05:25:28+00:00","og_image":[{"width":960,"height":540,"url":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/598786924_1319596710212547_6742960803308644178_n.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Our Reporter","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Our Reporter","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/exclusive\/%e2%82%a62-2bn-fraud-case-ngige-remanded-in-kuje-till-december-18\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/exclusive\/%e2%82%a62-2bn-fraud-case-ngige-remanded-in-kuje-till-december-18\/"},"author":{"name":"Our Reporter","@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/#\/schema\/person\/ba61acbe7e8967bcf3f3ba603d9db23c"},"headline":"\u20a62.2bn Fraud Case: Ngige Remanded in Kuje Till December 18\u00a0","datePublished":"2025-12-16T05:25:28+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/exclusive\/%e2%82%a62-2bn-fraud-case-ngige-remanded-in-kuje-till-december-18\/"},"wordCount":396,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/exclusive\/%e2%82%a62-2bn-fraud-case-ngige-remanded-in-kuje-till-december-18\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/598786924_1319596710212547_6742960803308644178_n.jpg","articleSection":["Exclusive"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/exclusive\/%e2%82%a62-2bn-fraud-case-ngige-remanded-in-kuje-till-december-18\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/exclusive\/%e2%82%a62-2bn-fraud-case-ngige-remanded-in-kuje-till-december-18\/","url":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/exclusive\/%e2%82%a62-2bn-fraud-case-ngige-remanded-in-kuje-till-december-18\/","name":"\u20a62.2bn Fraud Case: Ngige Remanded in Kuje Till December 18\u00a0 - Pointblank News","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/exclusive\/%e2%82%a62-2bn-fraud-case-ngige-remanded-in-kuje-till-december-18\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/exclusive\/%e2%82%a62-2bn-fraud-case-ngige-remanded-in-kuje-till-december-18\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/598786924_1319596710212547_6742960803308644178_n.jpg","datePublished":"2025-12-16T05:25:28+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/#\/schema\/person\/ba61acbe7e8967bcf3f3ba603d9db23c"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/exclusive\/%e2%82%a62-2bn-fraud-case-ngige-remanded-in-kuje-till-december-18\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/exclusive\/%e2%82%a62-2bn-fraud-case-ngige-remanded-in-kuje-till-december-18\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/exclusive\/%e2%82%a62-2bn-fraud-case-ngige-remanded-in-kuje-till-december-18\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/598786924_1319596710212547_6742960803308644178_n.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/598786924_1319596710212547_6742960803308644178_n.jpg","width":960,"height":540},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/exclusive\/%e2%82%a62-2bn-fraud-case-ngige-remanded-in-kuje-till-december-18\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"\u20a62.2bn Fraud Case: Ngige Remanded in Kuje Till December 18\u00a0"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/#website","url":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/","name":"Pointblank News","description":"Just the news","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/#\/schema\/person\/ba61acbe7e8967bcf3f3ba603d9db23c","name":"Our Reporter","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/83b3820ef93d502ae3a617b2c881ca42?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/83b3820ef93d502ae3a617b2c881ca42?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Our Reporter"},"url":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/author\/admin\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124449","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124449"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124449\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":124451,"href":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124449\/revisions\/124451"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/124450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}