How Nigerian SDGs office used ‘imaginary streetlights’ to steal over N1billion under Buhari’s nose

Sahara Reporters

Four out of the five contractors that received over N1billion for the installation of solar streetlights in Adamawa State are the same individuals but the projects were allegedly never executed; President Muhammadu Buhari’s senior special assistant on Sustainable Development Goals, Adejoke Orelope-Adedulire, facilitated the suspicious contracts.
On the last day of 2019, the Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Sustainable Development Goals, or SDGs, made five suspicious payments summing up to over N1billion. The companies got the same amount of money for the construction and installation of solar streetlights in Adamawa State.

Investigation by WikkiTimes, however, revealed that four of the five companies belonged to the same individuals and the streetlights were never installed as proposed. It was an alleged stealing of public funds in a brazen manner.
The projects were not captured in the federal government’s budget of 2019 but the contractors were paid in full all at once on December 31, 2019.
WikkiTimes uncovered that these projects were neither a grant from donor agencies nor in the 2019 appropriation, but were categorised as zonal intervention projects.
The projects were purportedly meant to boost development in line with SDGs goal 7 which required governments to “ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all.”
Had the projects been implemented in Adamawa State as claimed, the streetlights would have contributed to beefing up security in parts of the state which have been battered by insurgency and other crimes.
Adamawa has been bedevilled by insecurity caused by Boko Haram insurgency which has displaced several families from their homes and has increased the number of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in dire need of help but those who masterminded the projects allegedly used the crisis as an opportunity to enrich themselves.
The Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on SDGs is headed by Adejoke Orelope Adefulire, a former deputy governor of Lagos State between 2011 and 2015.  In addition to flagrantly violating the public procurement law, the office could not provide satisfactory evidence of carrying out the projects.
Records from Govspend.ng, an open contracting portal shows that the companies received the sum of N217,749,257.14 each for the projects. The contractors were Zaco Construction and Engineering Ltd, I.C Data Solution Ltd, Sakakah General Service Ltd, Emerald Brent & Onyx Ltd and Biosecureone Ltd.
Available public records show that in 2019 and 2020 as tracked by Budgit, the project was not executed even after the money was fully paid to the contractors.

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