TheInvestigator probe of financial transactions by Federal MDAs revealed that money meant for official assignments was paid into personal accounts to the tune of over N1.8b.
By Archibong Jeremiah
The investigation uncovered financial irregularities involving over 10 Nigerian Ministries engaging in illegal transactions. The MDAs reportedly violated Nigeria’s Financial Regulations, 2009 by paying public funds into personal accounts and engaging in questionable transactions. The investigation highlighted numerous instances of financial misconduct and raised significant concerns regarding financial oversight and accountability in Nigeria.
Between 2018 and 2024 records from GovSpend, an analytic tool designed to give user-friendly access to information on the daily spending of the Federal Government of Nigeria at all levels have shown that some Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) engaged in transactions that go against the country’s Financial Regulations, 2009.
TheInvestigator probe of financial transactions by Federal MDAs revealed that money meant for official assignments was paid into personal accounts to the tune of over N1.8b.
Chapter Seven (bank accounts and cheques) section 713 (public and personal money to be kept separate) of Nigeria’s Financial Regulations 2009 which emphasises separating public and personal money in government transactions needed to be adhered to.
Section 713 states, “Personal money shall in no circumstances be paid into a government bank account, nor shall any public money be paid into a private bank account. An officer who pays public money into a private account is deemed to have done so with fraudulent intention.”
Going by the section above, payment of public money into a personal account contravene the law.
The data extracted from GovSpend indicts over 10 MDAs. They are the Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy, Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation, Federal Polytechnic Ngodo Isuochi Abia State; Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment; National Primary Health Care Development Agency; Federal Ministry of Niger Delta; Federal Ministry of Aviation; Office of the Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta; Federal Ministry of Finance Budget and National Planning; Federal Ministry of Women Affairs; the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, Enugu; National Agricultural Land Development Authority (NALDA); and National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure.
Others are the Ministry of Petroleum Resources; Nigeria Nuclear Regulatory Authority; Federal Ministry of Works And Housing; Nigerian Law Reform Commission, Federal Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation; Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President – (OSSAP-MDGS); National Steel Raw Materials Exploration Agency, Kaduna; National Commission for College Education Secretariat; University of Calabar Teaching hospital; Cross River Basin Development Authority; and Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs Disaster Management and Social Development.
The transactions scrutinised were carried out in three states – Abia, Akwa Ibom and Cross River.
Abia
The Federal Polytechnic, Ngodo Isuochi, Abia State paid Drisu Ndalami Ibrahim N10 million on December 17, 2023, for office equipment. Two days later, Ezenuruihe Ifeyinwa Olachi was paid another N10 million for the same reason. Six days later, an additional N15 million was paid to Ndubuisi Paul Darlington for the Rector’s office equipment.
For the same reason as above, on December 29, 2023, Darlington was paid N9 million, and Ibrahim and Olachi got N5 million each. Obe Joel Ebubedike Anyanwu got an additional N5 million.
To campaign for patronage of made-in-Nigeria products, on November 27, 2018, the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment paid Ahmed Abdul N22 million, Shoniregun, Olabode Oluseyi N15 million, and Iya Ahmed, Goni Umar N26 million.
The Office of the Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta paid Sanusi Idris N85 million for meeting logistics with stakeholders, camp leaders and youths.
See the transactions in the table below:
Akwa Ibom
April 20, 2019, Ebitonmor Oyinmiebi was paid N33,977,922.05 as an advance payment for a stakeholders workshop by the office of the Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta.
On October 22, 2019, it paid N70 million to Ogar Sunday Ereshe as the cost of hall rentals, accommodation, public address system, honorarium, and other logistics for meeting with stakeholders, camp leaders and youths.
The Federal Ministry of Niger Delta paid Joy Osarentin Baderin N22,460,000 on October 29, 2021, as administrative advance for honorarium and logistics for a skill acquisition workshop in Uyo and another N8,240,000 for air ticket and local running costs.
December 31, 2022, Nnadi Hector, Ajayi Timothy Dipo, Iron-Baba Bashir Nurudeen, Enokela Onehi Aboje, Nkwo James Isidore, and Yunusa Abdulsalam were paid N5 million each for air tickets, accommodation and other logistics for the establishment of Nigeria National Carrier Aviation Labour Union by the Federal Ministry of Aviation.
See the transactions in the table below:
Cross River
The office of the Accountant-General of the Federation paid Engineer Bassey Edet Nkposong, Managing Director of Cross River Basin Development Authority, N5,777,595 as furniture allowance to sixteen (16) political office holders on April 6, 2021. His staff, Mrs Eta Eyo Ita was paid the exact amount (N5,777,595) by the same office on November 27, 2019, for no reason.
Eno O. Arikpo was paid N7m by Federal Polytechnic, Ugep in Yakurr local government area on November 24, 2023, for the rent of quarters for visiting lecturers.
Prof. Ikpeme A. Ikpeme CDM of the University Of Calabar Teaching Hospital also was paid N5,777,595 by the AG’s office for furniture allowance on November 11, 2023.
December 27, 2018, the National Centre For Agricultural Mechanisation- Ilorin paid N13,125,000 to Kamal Rasheed Abdulgafar and Faleye Tope N18,000,000 to supply home grain machines to Abi/Yakurr/Obubra LGAs.
The National Social Investment Office paid 80,223,080 on 9/14/2022 to Uthaimunyene (no other name) and another N25,785,990 on June 24, 2022, for aggregating tom brown.
The Federal Ministry of Niger Delta paid its staff (Patricia Atel Imanyi) N16,900,000 and N6,684,000 on June 11, 2019, as personal advance for free medical outreach. The same Ministry paid Ezekiel Manga N8,846,000 for project commissioning on January 1, 2019.
See the transactions in the table below:
Activist Calls for Citizen Involvement and CSO Action to Combat Corruption in Nigeria
The South-South Zonal Lead for the #FollowTheMoney campaign, Efanga Etim when contacted by TheInvestigator said citizens’ ignorance fuels corruption. “The citizens need to get involved. Get involved in your budget, and get involved in how these funds are being disposed of. Citizens just need to get involved because the outcome of corruption does not fall on whoever is committing the corruption or the crime. It falls on all.
“Negligence amongst citizens in the country is also giving a thumbs up to corruption. Like you know, you see people saying let them do what they want to do, what is my own business? Yes, your business is the outcome of what they are going to do.”
He noted that the implication is that the citizens will suffer. “Now, if these funds have been transferred to private accounts, which means it has been stolen, then the citizens will suffer. The government will not suffer.”
Efanga called for intensified CSO action against corruption. He said, “And it’s so painful that the people perpetrating this demonic act are not even in the States, you barely see them in the States. I want to first say civil society organizations are doing a lot of jobs going out of their way to see how they could cope with this corruption and reduce it in our communities, and our society at large. Civil society organizations should sit up, we also have the responsibility to always advocate for transparency, and accountability in the usage of public funds.”
He advised that “One of the big and terrible mistakes Nigerians are always making is also failing to vote out corruption in our electoral processes. It’s your tax, it’s your money. If you’re giving your money to somebody to do something for you, you definitely want to monitor what that person is doing with your money. And you want to ensure that this person is using the money judiciously, for whatever you’re giving the person the money to use for.”
TheInvestigator produced this story through its Environmental and Accountability Reporting (EAR) project with support from CITAD and the MacArthur Foundation.