Exclusive: Nigeria’s Chief of Air Staff Hasan Abubakar Personally Approved N238 Million in Air Force Contracts That Defied His Own Government’s Procurement Threshold

Secrets Reporters

Nigerian Air Force Base Makurdi, home to Tactical Air Command, is the nerve centre of NAF operations across Nigeria’s restive North Central corridor. 

An internal financial audit of the base’s Unit Treasury Account, obtained by SecretsReporters, has uncovered ₦238,426,010 in construction and remodelling contracts that exceeded the Bureau of Public Procurement’s revised monetary threshold, payments personally approved by the then Chief of the Air Staff himself, in direct disregard of the very federal circular he was bound to follow.

Five payments make up this finding. Flight Lieutenant AA Ishaku (NAF/4433) received ₦109,526,010 across two payments for accommodation construction and renovation of the base’s Air Provost Wing. Flight Lieutenant KS Anishere (NAF/3887) received ₦40,000,000 for remodelling senior non-commissioned officers’ accommodation. And Squadron Leader Abara Godswill (NAF/3695) received ₦88,900,000 across two further payments for construction at 107 Air Maintenance Group, Benin. 

Every one of these five payments exceeded the monetary threshold set out in Circular Ref. No. PROC/OSGF/BPP/709/85 of 19 January 2022, which had specifically revised the service-wide prior-review and approval thresholds to reflect current economic realities and every one of them was approved anyway, with the audit attributing that approval directly to the then Chief of the Air Staff, Air Marshal Hasan Abubakar.

A threshold exists precisely so that spending above a certain scale cannot be approved at a single officer’s discretion. It forces a contract into a higher tier of review specifically designed to catch exactly the kind of irregularity SecretsReporters ongoing investigative series has already documented in oter government agencies: forged receipts, unverified works, and undocumented staff engagements. 

Air Marshal Hasan Abubakar served as Chief of the Air Staff from June 2023 until his retirement in October 2025, spanning the entirety of the audited financial year and the personal approval this audit attributes to him. Air Marshal Sunday Aneke has served as Chief of the Air Staff since 30 October 2025 and now bears institutional responsibility for ensuring this threshold breach does not recur and that the five contracts detailed here are independently reviewed. 

At the base level, command of Tactical Air Command Makurdi rotated during and after the audited year, Air Vice Marshal Patrick Obeya held the post through mid-2024, Air Vice Marshal Elijah Ebiowe took over from September 2024, and Obeya has since returned to the role, meaning responsibility for flagging these contracts before they reached the Chief of the Air Staff’s desk is shared across this rotation of commanders.