Budget padding: How N5.97bn for police stations, cholera response was hidden in co-op college budget

The 2026 Appropriation Act contains N5.971 billion in police station construction, cholera intervention, and solar water projects buried under the capital budget of the Federal Co-operative College, Oji River, Enugu State, according to a report by SaharaReporters.

The projects, scattered across Rivers, Delta, Cross River and Zamfara states, contradict the college’s academic mandate. Notably, N266 million was repeatedly allocated to multiple communities for identical cholera and water interventions.

The findings raise fresh concerns about budget padding, as lawmakers reportedly use federal institutions to embed constituency projects, obscuring accountability and making project sponsors difficult to trace.