Senator Ireti Kingibe, who represents the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) in the Senate, has been petitioned to the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) over allegations that she collected money to facilitate a Federal Government contract that did not exist.
The petition, dated April 27, was written by lawyer Elochukwu Obi on behalf of his client, Nonso Okafor and addressed to the chairman of the ICPC.
According to the petition, Mr Okafor paid $65,000, said to be equivalent to N118 million at the time, after being approached in October 2024 by Osereme Omofoma, identified as Senator Kingibe’s senior legislative aide.
Lawyer Obi said Omofoma told his client that the money was needed to meet urgent financial needs for the senator.
He said the aide also promised that the money would either be refunded in full or that Kingibe would help secure government contracts through which the businessman would recover his money.
“Christian approached our client pleading with him to help him raise $100,000 for the Senator to enable her to meet urgent financial needs. The SLA promised that the money would be repaid in full or in the alternative, the Senator will facilitate the award of contracts to our client through which he would recoup the money,” the petition stated.
The lawyer said his client initially declined because he did not have the money but later borrowed from friends after repeated pressure.
He added that Okafor was able to raise $65,000 out of the $100,000 requested.
The petition stated that the money was paid in two instalments in October 2024, with an assurance that the contract would come within a few weeks.
Obi said months passed without any contract offer.
“After the payment, our client futilely waited far beyond the envisaged timeframe for the promised contracts, but nothing materialised,” he said.
He added that his client later concluded that there was no contract and began to demand a refund.
According to the petition, Kingibe denied receiving any money and refused to refund it.
“The Senator not only refused to refund the money, but she also began to actively claim that she did not receive any money from our client,” the lawyer stated.
Obi said his client continued to seek repayment through the senator’s aide after direct contact with her became difficult.
He further alleged that after Okafor threatened to report the matter to law enforcement agencies, N50 million was paid to him in May 2025.
“Upon our client’s expression of his determination to get the law enforcement involved in the matter, they reluctantly decided to unilaterally pay only N50,000,000,” the petition said.
The lawyer claimed Kingibe and her aide then asked his client to accept the amount as full settlement and allegedly threatened him with arrest if he insisted on the balance.
He said N68 million remains unpaid.
“Despite the threats, our client continued to peacefully press for the completion of his money, which remains N68,000,000. All subsequent appeals for the payment fell on deaf ears,” the petition added.
Obi told the ICPC that his client believes there was no contract to facilitate and that the promise of a contract was used to obtain money from him.
“Our client believes that there were no contracts for the Senator to facilitate in the first place. On the contrary, the facilitation of contract was a deceitful gimmick which was deployed to fraudulently collect money from him,” he wrote.
The petitioner asked the commission to investigate the matter, determine whether any law was broken and recover the outstanding N68 million.
As of the time of this report, Ireti Kingibe had not issued any public response to the allegations.
The ICPC has also not announced whether it has opened an investigation.
