Secret Reporters No place to hide
Secrets Reporters
An explosive investigation has uncovered how Mr. Abba Goni Yarema, Assistant Director of Finance at the Federal Ministry of Transportation, leveraged his position to enrich himself through a network of privately-owned companies in direct violation of Nigerian laws. Yarema’s activities facilitated the laundering of hundreds of millions of naira, siphoned through his companies and funneled into foreign exchange dealings via Heart-land Bureau De Change.
Despite constitutional and public service regulations barring full-time civil servants from owning and managing private businesses, Yarema is reportedly the sole or co-director of three companies: Yaremag Global Ltd, Goodtimes Properties International Ltd, and Yaremag Global Farms Ltd. These companies, all unlisted on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), have collectively been at the center of large financial inflows, including over ₦700 million in 2018 alone.
Evidence suggests that funds flowing into Yarema’s companies were sourced from public coffers and lucrative government contracts. For instance, Yaremag Global Ltd received ₦111 million from Borno State in a single transaction, with a portion redirected toward personal expenditures, such as ₦10 million paid to an auto dealer. As the funds poured into company accounts, substantial sums were promptly moved to Heart-land Bureau De Change, presumably for laundering or conversion to foreign currency.
The sheer scale of these financial activities raises red flags about a systematic abuse of public office. Yarema’s actions flout the provisions of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended), which explicitly prohibits public officers from engaging in private business ventures to avoid conflicts of interest.
By owning and running private businesses while in public service, Yarema has contravened Section 172 of the Constitution and the Fifth Schedule, which mandates public officers to avoid conflicts of interest and to declare their assets, including those of their spouses and minor children. Furthermore, his failure to disclose his companies’ existence and associated accounts to the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) demonstrates a deliberate attempt to conceal his wealth from regulatory scrutiny.
This breach is particularly egregious as the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution clearly states that public officers shall not “engage or participate in the management or running of any private business, profession, or trade,” except in the case of farming. Yarema’s role as director in multiple companies represents a blatant disregard for these laws, calling into question his fitness to remain in public office.
The case has parallels with the 2019 removal of Nigeria’s Chief Justice, Walter Onnoghen, over asset declaration failures, underscoring the importance of transparency in public office. Observers are calling on the National Assembly, anti-corruption agencies, and law enforcement to hold Yarema accountable, recover the diverted funds, and implement stricter oversight to prevent similar abuses in the future.
