By Secrets Reporters
On the Government House payroll in Lokoja sits a salary provision that does not belong to the civil service. It is titled Salary of Vigilante Group, and the Kogi State approved budget for 2026 records what the provision did in 2025.
It opened 2025 at N851,767,085. During the year it was raised to a final provision of N2,451,767,085, and actual spending recorded against it for 2025 is N2,388,280,965.50. The state paid out, as salaries to a vigilante group carried inside Government House, close to three times the amount the House of Assembly approved at the start of the year.
For 2026, the provision returned to the figure the Assembly first saw. The approved amount is again N851,767,085. By 30 June 2026, six months into the year, the Budget Implementation Report for the second quarter of 2026 records spending of N1,190,563,763.35 against it. The full-year provision was already exceeded at the middle of the year.
Beside the vigilante salary sits a second uniformed payroll that appeared from nowhere. The Police Special Constabulary Allowance carried no provision in the original budget for 2025. The 2026 budget book records actual spending of N156,600,000 against it for 2025, and an approved provision of N200,000,000 for 2026.
The vigilante salary drove the Government House personnel bill as a whole. Personnel spending for the office opened 2025 at N1,244,578,673, was raised to a final provision of N3,044,578,673, and closed the year at N2,890,418,389.70. By 30 June 2026, the office had consumed N1,461,541,498.17 of its personnel provision for the year, which stands at N1,682,539,467. Six months in, 86.9 percent of the year’s personnel money was spent.
SecretsReporters found no record in the published budget books of how many vigilante personnel the salary covers. The books record the provision, its growth during 2025 and the amounts paid, and they do not record the strength of the group, the rate at which any member is paid, or whether the payments pass through the state payroll.
Under section 120 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, salaries and every other charge on the state’s Consolidated Revenue Fund are paid only under an Appropriation Law or a supplementary law of the House of Assembly. The Appropriation Law for 2026, signed by Governor Ahmed Usman Ododo, carries the vigilante salary among the charges on the Fund, and the state’s own implementation report shows its provision was passed by June.
