The federal secretariat land in Kebbi State has been described as a conduit for “siphoning” money by the Nigerian government.
According to Tracka, a public accountability organization, the government budgeted money for perimeter fencing of the secretariat for two consecutive fiscal years.
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In 2019, about N200 million was budgeted for construction of the perimeter fence in Birnin Kebbi.
In the following year, half of the money spent in 2019 was reportedly expended on the same project.
However, the same project was recaptured in 2021 and 2022 budget, according to Tracka.
Accumulatively, the money in the recaptured budgets is over N90 million — N56,640,590 in 2021 and N34,152,000 in the subsequent year.
All these shady budgeting, Tracka said, were done under the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing.
The pro-accountability platform, however, called for explanations from the concerned authorites.
“The federal secretariat land Birnin Kebbi has become the conduit pipe for syphoning public fund,” Tracka declared. “One will wonder why as single project will be captured every year.”
It alleged that the federal ministry of works has refused to carry out oversight function on the level of implementation of the project.
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The organization called on the Minister of Works Babatunde Raji Fashola and other relevant agencies such as the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC) to investigate the project and do the needful.
Efforts to reach the ministry proved abortive as an email sent to an address made available on its site had not been responded to at press time.
