SecretsReporters findings from the official payment records of the Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate show a directorate whose 2024 records straddle the fall of one Executive Secretary and the rise of another. Dr Chioma Nnenna Ejikeme, reappointed by President Bola Tinubu for a second term with effect from 10 October 2023, was removed on 18 November 2024, days after pensioners protested unpaid benefits at the Federal Ministry of Finance. The statement announcing the change gave no reason for her removal. Tolulope Abiodun Odunaiya took office as Executive Secretary the same day. Six weeks later, on 31 December 2024, the directorate paid both women identical estacodes of N14,983,250.32 for the same London training, on the same payment instrument, on the last day of the year.
The N620 million New Year’s Eve transfer
The largest single payment in the directorate’s 2024 records went out on the same 31 December: N620,000,000.00 to the Ministry of Finance (Finance and Supply) Calabar, described in full as reimbursement of gratuities paid on behalf of the Federal Government. Six hundred and twenty million naira left the directorate on New Year’s Eve on a one-line description. Section 38 of the Fiscal Responsibility Act 2007 requires every kobo of public money to be spent as appropriated, between government bodies as much as anywhere else. The records do not say what appropriation line carried the reimbursement, or which gratuities, paid to whom, it covered.
Two bosses, one training, N47.17 million
The four estacodes sit on a single payment instrument, number 1001256657, every line dated 31 December 2024 and every line for the same course, a training on Mastering Strategic Innovation and Change Management in London. Tolulope Abiodun Odunaiya received N14,983,250.32. Dr Chioma Ejikeme received N14,983,250.32. Sani Ibrahim Mustapha received N8,603,381.02, and Sulayman Yusuff-Shelleng received N8,603,381.02. The four lines total N47,173,262.68 in estacode for one London programme. Ejikeme had ceased to hold the office six weeks earlier, on 18 November 2024. Under the Financial Regulations, estacode is an allowance payable only for an approved journey actually undertaken, and every advance must be retired with evidence of the journey. The payment records carry no retirement of the N14,983,250.32 paid to the removed Executive Secretary, and no evidence that the journey it paid for was ever made.
N40.94 million to an inactive business name
On 9 May 2024, in Ejikeme’s time in office, the directorate paid N40,940,000.00 to Festus Azikagbon and Associates as rent for eight units of three-bedroom semi-detached houses for one year. Company records at the Corporate Affairs Commission show Festus Azikagbon and Associates, business name number BN-015659, registered on 11 July 2000, stands INACTIVE on the register. The Financial Regulations require every contractor to hold valid registration credentials before public money is paid. An entity the register no longer recognises as active cannot satisfy that test, yet the rent was paid in full.
The training consultant two years on the register
The London programme drew a second payment on 31 December 2024. Signox Consulting collected N34,976,744.19 as the training fee for members of staff to attend the same Mastering Strategic Innovation and Change Management training in London. Corporate Affairs Commission records show Signox Consulting was registered on 10 June 2022, two and a half years before the directorate handed it the fee on New Year’s Eve. Sections 16 and 25 of the Public Procurement Act 2007 demand competitive bidding and bidder eligibility for contracts of this weight. The records carry no evidence of either.
Allowances without end
The allowance pipeline ran beneath the big tickets all year. On 13 December 2024, Ayobamidele Yetunde Onabajo received N9,396,000.00 as duty tour allowance for the Executive Secretary’s office to carry out state visitation functions in nine states: Adamawa, Kaduna, Kwara, Sokoto, Borno, Edo, Anambra, Enugu and Kano. On 31 July 2024, Ibrahim Aliyu received N9,003,232.00 as a cash advance for media coverage of the commissioning of the Kwara State office. And the diesel and toner carousel turned on, every tranche priced below N10 million. Devcom Integrated Services Limited supplied diesel three times: N8,736,172.00 on 2 April 2024, N8,723,200.00 on 22 July 2024 and N8,723,200.00 on 30 August 2024. Law Chuks Global Multi Concept Limited supplied HP toners three times: N8,670,560.00 on 5 March 2024, N8,408,300.00 on 14 September 2024 and N8,408,300.00 on 19 September 2024. Top Talent Concept Synergy Limited supplied HP toners twice in the year’s final days: N8,711,920.00 on 16 December 2024 and N8,487,260.00 on 24 December 2024. Repeat vendors, repeat items, staggered dates and sums parked just under the same line are the anatomy of the contract splitting that Section 43 of the Public Procurement Act 2007 prohibits.
The payment records are the directorate’s own account of its year, and they answer none of the questions they raise. They name the payees, the sums and the days. They do not carry the appropriation line behind the Calabar reimbursement, the retirement of an estacode paid to a woman who no longer held the office, or any evidence that the London training, whose fee and allowances were all paid on a single day, was attended by anyone at all.
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