N10 Billion Paid To Six Months Old Company And Four Ghost Companies: Inside Fmr Minister Wale Edun, NRS Chairman Zaach Adedeji And Perm. Sec Lydia Jafiya’s PCNGI Contract Heist

SecretsReporters

The Presidential CNG Initiative (PCNGI) was sold to Nigerians as a lifeline, a federal programme meant to cushion the pain of subsidy removal by converting vehicles to run on cheaper, cleaner compressed natural gas.

What SecretsReporters can now authoritatively reveal, from documents available to it, is that the PCNGI became something else entirely: a conduit through which over N10 billion in public funds was funnelled to a cluster of shell companies, newly registered, tax-noncompliant, procurement-ineligible, and in some cases stuffed at the last minute with mysterious “directors” who look, on paper, like nothing more than front.

At the centre of this scandal sit three names: Wale Edun, then Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Nigerian Revenue Service Executive Chairman, Zaach Adedeji and Lydia Shehu Jafiya, former Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Finance.

The PCNGI’s Steering Committee is chaired by the Executive Chairman of the Nigeria Revenue Service, Dr. Zacch Adedeji, but it is the Finance Ministry leadership under Edun and Jafiya that presided over the disbursement architecture that let these payments sail through.

The Companies, the payments and the red flags

SBO Energy Limited: Incorporated October 9, 2023. Just six months later, on May 6, 2024, it received N532,980,000 for 3,000 CNG kits and cylinders. Corporate records list the promoter as Olagbaiye Samuel Babafemi, a media consultant with no known background in energy, engineering or gas logistics, holding 80% of the company alongside a minority co-owner, Adenaike Olumuyiwa (20%).

Biyaks Business Options Limited: A company that, by the government’s own procurement checks, failed tax compliance and did not meet procurement eligibility criteria and was paid anyway, repeatedly: N846,000,000 (30% of a ₦2,820,000,000 contract), fully disbursed, N564,000,000 for a separate contract for 5,000 CNG kits and N783,209,302 on February 16, 2024, for yet another batch of 5,000 kits.

Combined, Biyaks pulled in roughly N2.19 billion or more from PCNGI-linked contracts. On February 21, 2022, a new director, Bitrus John, was added to the company, and now holds 40% of it. SecretsReporters’ checks suggest Bitrus John’s role bears the hallmarks of a front, a nominee holding significant equity with no independent public profile in the energy or logistics sector.

Xarraca Synergy Limited: Incorporated in May 2021. Also flagged as non-taxpaying and non-compliant with procurement law, the company received N1,529,850,000 on one contract and a further N917,910,000 on May 6, 2024 for 5,000 CNG conversion kits and cylinders, combined receipts of N2.4 billion. On December 29, 2022, two new directors notably Siloko Emmanuel Waridouowei and Ajiamah Renua Mife were added to the company.

Silveredge Projects Ltd: A two-decade-old company that suddenly found itself the beneficiary of contracts worth N3,666,000,000 (fully disbursed, of which N1,099,800,000 was paid on June 26, 2024) and a further N695,600,000 on May 6, 2024 for 2,000 CNG-fuelled tricycles. The company carries outstanding tax compliance issues. Its promoter, Ademola Idris Idowu, was only made a director on August 13, 2022, two decades after the company’s original incorporation, raising questions about who controlled the firm, and for what purpose, when it suddenly became a favoured PCNGI contractor.

SecretsReporters observation shows that these contracts are for newly registered or newly repurposed entities, several tax-noncompliant, several failing basic procurement eligibility checks, several restructured with fresh “directors” holding large equity stakes shortly before or during the contract-award window and all of them landing PCNGI contracts worth hundreds of millions to billions of naira, with little to no visible track record justifying the awards.

The Law Edun, Zaach and Jafiya Stand accused of violating

Public Procurement Act 2007: Sections 16, 24, 25 and 40 require competitive, advertised bidding and a documented evaluation of every contractor’s technical and financial capacity. Companies that “failed to meet procurement criteria” or are “non-compliant with procurement law”.

Federal Inland Revenue Service (Establishment) Act / Tax Compliance Requirements: Federal contractors are required to demonstrate tax compliance, typically evidenced by a valid Tax Clearance Certificate, before contract award and payment. Biyaks, Xarraca, and Silveredge are all flagged as tax-noncompliant, yet all were paid with some in full. Permitting disbursement to non-taxpaying entities is a direct breach of standing fiscal administration rules the Permanent Secretary is charged with enforcing. Zaach Adedeji is Chairman of this particular agency saddled with enforcing the law allegedly broken.

Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act (ICPC Act) 2000: Sections 12, 19 and 26 criminalise conferring undue advantage on unqualified companies in exchange for gratification, and the fraudulent diversion of public funds. The recurring pattern of front directors added shortly before major contract flows — Bitrus John at Biyaks, Waridouowei and Mife at Xarraca is precisely the kind of beneficial-ownership obfuscation the ICPC exists to unravel.

Fiscal Responsibility Act 2007: Imposes a duty of prudence and transparency in the management of public revenue. Disbursing over N10 billion to companies that failed the government’s own eligibility and compliance checks is fiscal recklessness of the highest order, squarely within the Act’s scope.

Code of Conduct Bureau and Tribunal Act: Public officers, including ministers and permanent secretaries, are required to avoid conduct that compromises the integrity of their office. Presiding over payments to companies that “continue to operate with impunity despite being ineligible under procurement law” again, a description drawn from the government’s own compliance flags raises direct Code of Conduct questions for both Edun, Zaach and Jafiya.