A Satellite Agency Building Roads And Community Halls: Inside MD Jane Egerton-Idehen N236 Million Mandate Violation At NIGCOMSAT

Secrets Reporters

The Nigerian Communications Satellite Limited exists for one reason, which is to build, deploy and commercialise satellite infrastructure that connects Nigeria to the world. It is not a constituency intervention fund neither a community development agency. It has no statutory business constructing roads, renovating town halls, or running youth empowerment schemes in specific federal and state constituencies hundreds of kilometres from any satellite ground station.

Yet documents reviewed by SecretsReporters shows that under the leadership of Managing Director/CEO Jane Nkechi Egerton-Idehen, NIGCOMSAT paid out N236,252,505.83 across eight separate transactions to five companies withevery single one of them for projects with no stated connection whatsoever to satellite communications, and every one of them tied to a specific political constituency.

The companies that were awarded the contracts for projects not within the purview of NIGCOMSAT are:

Pitmana Consulting Ltd received N72,950,627.84, paid as a 30% advance and a final payment, for “training and empowerment of professionals in Obio-Akpor Federal Constituency, Rivers State.”

Viebel Continental Options Limited received N25,010,940.70, again a 30% advance plus final payment, for “ICT capacity development and grant for women and youth in Ahoada West/Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni constituency, Rivers State.”

Laukamz & Co Limited received N46,689,119.22, described as the “2nd instalment of training & empowerment programme for youths in Obio-Akpor Federal Constituency, Rivers State”, a second company paid for activity in the very same constituency as Pitmana Consulting.

Mahacc Nigeria Limited received N1,433,907.77 for the “construction of 1km Chief Nyebuchi Francis Amadi Road in Elenlenwo, Obio/Akpor Federal Constituency, Rivers State”, a road construction contract, awarded by a satellite communications company, in the same constituency yet again.

Geraldchris Nig Ltd received N46,638,239.75, in a 30% advance and final payment structure, for the “renovation and furnishing of Orieku Kpunwo Community Hall, Orogbum, Rivers State.”

Redwood Mega Synergy Ltd received N33,529,670.55 for “empowerment training on the acquisition of technology, artisanal and craft skills for youth in Surulere II, Lagos.”

The total figure spent by the MD is an unambiguous N236,252,505.83, spent across eight payments to five companies, on training programmes, ICT grants, a road, and a community hall every one of them geographically and functionally disconnected from the satellite infrastructure mandate NIGCOMSAT exists to fulfil. Four of the six named projects sit inside a cluster of Rivers State constituencies. Obio-Akpor where Minister of FCT, Nyesom Wike comes from appears three separate times, across three different companies which shows a concentration that reads less like the spread of a national satellite company’s community outreach and more like the fingerprints of specific constituency-project insertions into an agency budget with no business executing them.

The Fiscal Responsibility Act 2007 requires that public funds be applied strictly in line with the statutory purpose for which an agency exists and for which its budget was appropriated. NIGCOMSAT’s budget is appropriated for satellite communications development, deployment and commercialisation not road construction, not community hall renovation, not youth empowerment training disconnected from any satellite or ICT infrastructure purpose the agency itself operates.

NIGCOMSAT (Establishment) framework and its enabling instruments mandate is limited to satellite systems, satellite-based services, and the commercial exploitation of Nigeria’s satellite assets.

The Public Procurement Act 2007 in even setting aside the mandate question, six separate contracts spread across five companies for training, ICT grants, road construction and building renovation all require competitive procurement, published tender processes, and Bureau of Public Procurement clearance appropriate to each distinct category of work and a road contract is not procured the same way as an empowerment training programme. SecretsReporters saw no evidence that NIGCOMSAT, an agency with no procurement track record in road construction or civil works, followed the specialised procurement safeguards these categories of contract require.

Nigeria’s annual Appropriation Act ties every kobo of an MDA’s budget to specific, named line items approved by the National Assembly. Constituency-specific “training and empowerment” or infrastructure lines appearing inside a satellite communications company’s payment ledger is a recognised pattern associated with budget padding, the insertion of unrelated, politically directed projects into an agency’s appropriation that the agency itself has no operational capacity or statutory basis to execute.

All attempts to reach the MD for comments on why she left her core mandate for construction of roads and townhalls proved abortive as her known line didn’t connect.