By Secrets Reporters
A discrepancy has emerged in official records concerning the N50 million budgeted for the construction of a magistrate court at Erho, Abraka, Delta State, with a 2024 budget performance report recording the full amount utilised and spent. However, a subsequent letter from the Chief Registrar of the Delta State High Court has revealed that the project was never awarded and that the money remained unaccessed.
The 2024 Quarter 4 Budget Performance Report, on page 90, recorded the project under the High Court of Justice with the description “Construction of Magistrate Court at Erho-Abraka”.
In the document a budgetary provision of N50 million, with the same amount appearing under the expenditure column, was recorded for the project. With a performance recorded of 100 percent, implying the money was utilised to the fullest.
The same page of the budget performance report contains other court construction projects, including the construction of a Magistrate Court at Okwagbe and Eku, for which N50 million was recorded with 100 per cent performance, as well as the construction of a Magistrate Court at Obiaruku, also recorded at N50 million and 100 per cent.
In a twist of events, a correspondence from the Chief Registrar, Delta State High Court, dated 18 June 2026, provides a different account of the N50 million provision for the Abraka project.
The letter, written in response to a Freedom of Information request concerning the reported expenditure of N50 million for the construction of the Magistrate Court at Erho, Abraka, states that the N50 million budgetary provision was made in the 2024 State Appropriation Law for Delta State High Court of Justice under the Capital Expenditure component of the Budget for the construction of the Magistrate Court, Abraka, within the fiscal year.
According to the letter, “The project was never awarded within the 2024 fiscal year or afterwards.”
It further added that, consequently, the allocation had not been accessed, adding that a search for payment vouchers, fund requisitions or withdrawal requests against the budgetary allocation produced no such records.
According to the Chief Registrar’s response, “the entire sum of N50,000,000.00 (Fifty Million Naira) only, as appropriated, remains unaccessed throughout the 2024 fiscal year or thereafter.”
