MEDIA aide to former Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, has dismissed reports suggesting that the former Anambra State Governor was kidnapped.
In a Facebook post on Wednesday, December 10, Ngige’s aide, Fred Chukwuelobe, said he had received several calls from journalists and acquaintances seeking clarification on claims that the former minister had been abducted.
He described the reports as false, explaining that the former governor was with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), not in the custody of kidnappers.
“I have been receiving calls in the past hour from friends and journalists seeking the veracity of the news making the rounds that His Excellency, Dr. Chris Ngige, former Governor of Anambra State and immediate past minister of labour and employment, has been kidnapped.
“Ngige is with the EFCC. He was not ‘abducted’ or ‘kidnapped,”’ Chukwuelobe wrote, adding that more details would be provided later.
Details of Ngige’s detention are still unclear as of press time. When The ICIR reached out to the commission’s spokesperson, Dele Oyewale, for information on the alleged detention, he didn’t respond to calls and texts.
Ngige’s invitation by the EFCC makes him the second minister in the Muhammadu Buhari administration to face interrogation by the anti-graft agency in recent weeks.
Last month, former Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, was questioned for days by the EFCC over alleged irregularities in the recovery of the $310 million looted by former nHead of State, Sani Abacha, which accrued to about $322.5 million with interest.
The commission reportedly seized Malami’s passport and placed him under a one-month reporting restriction. Malami, however, dismissed the allegations, describing them as “baseless, illogical and lacking in substance.”
He insisted, through a statement by his media aide, Mohammed Bello Doka, that no funds had been recovered before he assumed office in 2015, arguing that the EFCC’s claims “collapse when subjected to facts and elementary logic.”
Malami explained that the funds repatriated between 2017 and 2018 were properly channelled through the National Social Investment Programme under World Bank supervision, while an additional $321 million recovered in 2020 was earmarked for major infrastructure projects, including the Lagos–Ibadan Expressway, Abuja–Kano Road and the Second Niger Bridge.
Mustapha Usman is an investigative journalist with the International Centre for Investigative Reporting. You can easily reach him via: musman@icirnigeria.com. He tweets @UsmanMustapha_M