Wednesday, April 29, 2026 - An Abuja based lawyer, Elochukwu Obi, has dragged the senator representing the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Ireti Kingibe, before the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC), praying for investigation of the lawmaker over allegations bordering on abuse of office and fraud to the tune of N65 million.
The lawyer sought the senator’s probe by ICPC for allegedly
defrauding a businessman, Mr Nonso Okafor.
In a petition presented to ICPC and received by the
anti-graft agency, the businessman through his lawyer is accusing the senator
alongside one of her Senior Legislative Aides (SLA), Mr. Osereme Christen
Omofoma, of fraudulently obtaining the sum of $65,000 (Which was equivalent to
N118,000,000, at that time), from him sometimes in October 2024.
In petition dated April 27, 2026 and addressed to the ICPC
boss, the petitioner recalled how he was “deceitfully lured into paying the sum
of $65,000 following intense persuasion exerted on him” by Omofoma.
Elochukwu Obi, counsel to the petitioner, who signed the
petition on behalf of his client, claimed that the SLA had approached his
client pleading with him to help “raise the sum of 100,000 USD, for the
senator, to enable her meet urgent financial needs”.
According to him, the SLA promised that the money will be
repaid in full or in the alternative, the senator will facilitate the award of
contracts to the petitioner through which he will recoup his money.
“Initially, our client did not want to be part of the
arrangement, especially as he did not have the huge amount of money that was
demanded, at that material time.
“However, as a result of the enormous pressure exerted on
our client by the SLA, our client was railroaded into borrowing, in order to
meet up with the cash demand.
“Consequently, he resorted to borrowing from his friends. At
the end, our client was able to raise the sum of 65,000 USD, out of the 100,000
USD that was initially demanded and this was borrowed at exorbitant rates.
“This money was paid to Senator Kingibe, in two tranches in
October, 2024. The contract award promised to him was expected to come within a
few weeks from the date of payment,” the petition read.
The lawyer noted that problem however started several months
later when neither the money was repaid nor any contract awarded, adding that,
“it dawned on our client that there was no contract for him, and that he had
simply been misled”.
The petition
disclosed that when the businessman began to ask for the refund of his money,
the senator allegedly not only refused to refund the money but began to
actively claim that she did not receive any money from him.
He said, following determination to get law enforcement
involved in the matter, “they reluctantly decided to unilaterally pay only
N50,000,000, out of the total 65,000 USD (N118,000,000). The payment was made
in May 2025. After this, Senator Kingibe and her aide tried to compel our
client to accept the payment as full and final, with threats to arrest him, if
refuses to forego the balance”.
The lawyer stated that all appeals for the completion of the
balance of N68,000,000, fell on deaf ears.
“Our client believes that the attitudes of Senator Ireti
Kingibe and her SLA so far have been dodgy, deceptive and geared towards
defrauding him of his money by leveraging on the shield provided by high
governmental positions.
“Our client also strongly believes that there were no
contracts for the senator to facilitate in the first place. In the contrary,
the FACILITATION OF CONTRACT was a deceitful gimmick, which was deployed to
fraudulently collect money from him, without any intention of refunding same.
“It is against the above backdrop that we bring this
petition to the attention of your office. On behalf of our client, we most
respectfully plead, that you urgently intervene and cause your officers to
investigate this matter in order to determine whether there has been criminal
infractions and abuse of public office.
“We also specifically plead for the recovery of the
outstanding of N68,000,000 (Sixty Eight million Naira), which was deceitfully
collected from our client and wrongfully retained by Senator Ireti Kingibe,”
the petition added.
Meanwhile, when contacted, the senator did not respond to
calls put across to her. She also did not reply messages sent to her via SMS
and Whatsapp.
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