By On 19 December 2023, six days to Christmas, the National Identity Management Commission released N8,500,000 as a cash advance to one man, Adegoke Kayode Adedapo, for the purchase of forty hampers. The hampers work out at N212,500 apiece. The payment records obtained by SecretsReporters name no vendor who supplied them and describe nothing that went inside them. They name only the man who collected the cash.
It was the second time in seven days that money had moved to him. On 12 December 2023, Adedapo collected N7,000,000 for canopy and furniture, refreshments, plaques, decoration, sound system and miscellaneous items for an event. A year later, on 20 December 2024, he collected N9,000,000 as a cash advance for the procurement of two NIMC digital advertising panel signages, N4,500,000 for each signage. Three advances in thirteen months paid one individual N24,500,000, and no vendor is named in the records for the hampers or the signages.
Five Individuals, Seven Payments
Adedapo was not the only individual on the commission’s payment run. Asekokhai Lucky Michael received N7,500,000 on 8 April 2026 for the ASCSN commemoration of the 2026 World Workers Day. Saleh Muazu was reimbursed N6,965,000 on 14 October 2025 for booking a NIMC display booth and procuring a customised award and branded gifts. Orbih Christiana Aleuhivhia received N5,455,000 on 30 December 2024 as duty tour allowance for officers of the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission visiting NIMC offices in the South East and South West. Uba James Nnaemeka received N5,494,752 on 26 May 2026, described in the records only as funds for Mambilla HR system re-implementation.
Between December 2023 and May 2026, the seven payments to the five individuals total N49,914,752. The commission’s payment records for the same period show N222,586,289.15 spent outside salaries, pensions, taxes and deductions, so the payments to individuals make up 22 per cent of all of it. The Financial Regulations permit cash advances to officers for specific approved purposes and require every advance to be retired with receipts accounting for the spend. The purchase of hampers, signages, event decoration and exhibition booths is procurement, and the Public Procurement Act 2007 requires procurement to be competed among vendors and awarded on a contract. The records for these seven payments name no vendor, no contract and no competing bid. They show advances, a reimbursement and an allowance moving to individuals instead.
One Renovation, Two Payments, One Day
Eleven days after the hamper advance, on 30 December 2023, the commission paid Yus Associates Limited N12,560,280 for the renovation of the NIMC Lagos office. On the same day, it paid Yus Associates Limited N12,339,320, described as the balance payment for the renovation of the NIMC Lagos office. One contractor, one office, one day, N24,899,600 in two transactions.
Yus Associates Limited is on the Corporate Affairs Commission register, registration number RC 979762, registered on 13 September 2011. The register today carries the company as inactive, the mark the commission places on a company whose statutory filings are not up to date. The Public Procurement Act 2007 prohibits the splitting of a procurement into smaller lots to evade the approval thresholds that decide who approves a contract and what competition it must pass through. The payment records show the renovation carried as two payments made hours apart on a Saturday, two days before the budget year expired. They show no single contract for the full sum.
Abisoye Coker-Odusote took office as Director General of the commission on 24 August 2023, and every payment in this report was made on her watch.
