Data obtained from the website of the Budget Office of the Federation revealed that the federal government inflated money allocated to the Nigerian Navy for the construction of Dengi-Kwalmiya-Gagdi-Wawus S/B Bauchi Road in Plateau State, WikkiTimes can report.
Investigations show that N80 million was earlier proposed for the construction in the proposed 2023 budget. But the amount was outrageously inflated to N4.58 billion in the approved budget. The project was encoded as ‘ERGP12184371’ in both documents seen by WikkiTimes.
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That is not the only red flag observed in the allocation, the project was also allocated to the Ministry of Defense which has nothing to do with road construction. Further checks showed that there is no military base along the road [ that could justify the allocation to the ministry. Sources told WikkiTimes the road is a “rural road” in Kanam local area of Plateau State.
One of the sources said the road leads to Gum-Gagdi, the village of Yusuf Gagdi, a federal lawmaker representing Pankshin/Kanke/Kanam Federal Constituency. Gagdi is the chairman House of Representatives Committee on the Nigerian Navy. He is also in the race for the house’s speakership.
LAWMAKER DEFENDS ALLOCATION
The lawmaker, a member of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), in a telephone chat with WikkiTimes, defended the allocation of the road project to the Nigerian Navy. According to him, the military has engineers that have expertise in road construction. Gagdi added that recognised entities such as the Ministry of Works and its subsidiary, Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA) are already overwhelmed and sometimes, could not deliver most of the works awarded to them.
“Check the budget of Army, the Air Force, the Defence; you will see road constructions to have nothing to do with military institution domiciled there,” Gagdi told WikkiTimes, adding there was nothing wrong if he lobbies for a project under an agency he superintendents over.
“The Ministry of Works and FERMA are overwhelmed,” he stated. “They can not do 50 per cent of the work allocated to them and that is why you can see over 100 agencies [if they have engineering departments] are doing construction works.”
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He asked if our reporter knows whether the road construction allocated under the Ministry of Works in the 2022 budget year has achieved 20 per cent progress.
He added: “If they have not and you asked agencies that have qualified engineers to do the work of the Ministry of Works since they are entitled to do it by virtue of establishing departments of engineering, what is wrong with it?”
Gagdi further stated that construction works are not exclusively for the Ministry of Works and agencies under it.
“It is not cast in stones that road construction and building can only be executed by the Ministry of Works. No!” he exclaimed. “Agencies that have engineering departments with qualified engineers are qualified to do road construction and building and they have been doing it in the past.”
He continued: “In the various barracks of Army, Navy and Air Force in Nigeria, it was not the Ministry of Works that went to construct those roads for them and they have one of the best standards roads. They have constructed it themselves because they have engineers.”
PROJECT NOT INFLATED?
When asked to comment about the inflated amount, Gagdi told WikkiTimes that the project was not inflated. He said the road construction project was estimated to cost N19 billion, claiming the Navy had done work of over N2 billion on the road.
“So as an ongoing project, the Navy proposed N80 million. All things being equal, they came for defence and advocated that if they allow that road at the level it is, It is not going to auger well with the community, so if the National Assembly will deem it fit to increase the budget for the Navy because they have other items that they did not require money for.,” he explained.
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Gagdi added that projects are being prioritized and “the one that doesn’t require the money, you reduce the money and make the money available to the one that requires the money.”
Further on why the money inflated, WikkiTimes contacted Muhammad Saleh, Director of Finance in the Cash Management Office under the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning, but he was not available for comment. An enquiry sent to him had not been responded to as of press time.
