In what looks like a tale by the moonlight, a N443 million fraud has occurred at the Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Sustainable Development Goals (OSSAP-SDGs) headed by former deputy governor of Lagos State, Princess Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire, who is the Senior Special Assistant to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on SDGs.

OSSAP-SDGs is an agency supervised by the deposed Minister of Humanitarian, Mrs Betty Edu.

The N443 million fraud that occurred at the OSSAP-SDGs has been seen as a calculated attempt by those involved to deprive innocent secondary schools’ students in the affected schools’ dividends of democracy and subjected them to hardship and trauma of transportation.

It was gathered through investigations that Mrs Orelope-Adefulire paid out N443 million to different companies for the supply of ten 27-seater buses to various secondary schools in 2021, but these buses were never supplied to these schools as confirmed from the managements and parent associations of the schools.

OSSAP-SDGs under Orelope-Adefulire revealed during enquiry that the leadership of the Nigerian House Of Representatives led by Femi Gbajabiamila, who is now the Chief of Staff to President Bola Tinubu, coordinated the supplies as the lawmakers’ constituency projects in 2021.

This was made know by a top official of OSSAP-SDGs, Mr Hamad Kawu, who is the Secretary of Program (SOP) in the office.

He was responding to an enquiry about why the 27-seater Youton bus meant for Victory College Ikare Akoko was not delivered despite the payment of N43,222,289.72 to Zenith Bank account 1014049038 belonging to AYFIR Construction Company Nigeria on 21 May 2021.

Kawu went on to reveal that: “The supply of the bus was part of the Constituency Projects of one the leaders of the 9th National Assembly in 2021.

“It involved the supply of ten buses in total which was supplied and paid for by the Office of the SSA/SDGs after necessary acknowledgments.

“The practice was and is still that once that project falls within the constituency projects, it will be handed over to the beneficiaries via the Representatives.

“In this context, the said ten buses supplied were handed over to the Sponsor for symbolic presentation to the beneficiaries, including the one meant for Victory College, Ikare Akoko which was duly acknowledged.”

Surprisingly, when this newspaper visited most of these schools which the supplies were meant for and interviewed the managements and parent associations of the schools, the shock revelation was that no bus was ever supplied to the schools, and nobody ever acknowledged receiving the buses.

The question is where are those buses? Where are the documents that the beneficiary schools acknowledged and who acknowledged the documents?

Contrary to Mr Kawu’s admission that it was 10 schools, we can authoritatively establish through discreet investigation that the total number of the buses was 19.

When Kawu was reminded that Mr Femi Gbajabiamila was the former Speaker and Leader of the House of Representatives who he was referring to during his earlier response to our enquiry, he could not respond to the question as at the time of going to the press.

Meanwhile, our investigation has revealed the identity of the schools that were supposed to benefit from the supply of the buses but were denied by monumental fraud at OSSAP-SDGs, while the names of the contractors, account numbers and the banks the payments were made have also been revealed.

Ansar-Ud-Deen Secondary School, Lagos supply was handled by a contractor name Abug Investment Nigeria Limited and got the payment of N43 million

Masanawa Enterprise Limited with account number 0005489996 at Access Bank was paid N86 million to supply two buses to Bishops Philips Academy, Iwo Road in Ibadan, Oyo State and Lagos Progressive Secondary School but nothing was delivered to the schools.

Afman Allied Services with account number 1015425152 domiciles in Zenith Bank was paid N43 million to supply a bus to Gbajabiamila Boys Secondary School in Lagos state.

Coldwell Investment Trust Limited with account number 0005490017 at Access Bank was paid N43 million each to supply buses to Gbaja Girls Secondary School and Ideal Girls Secondary School both in Lagos state.

Afnam Construction Company Limited with account number 1014798202 at Zenith Bank was paid N43 million to supply the vehicle to Gbaja Primary/Secondary School, Lagos but nothing was delivered, while Iponri Grammar School, Lagos suffered the same fate from Zimtain Resources Limited that got the sum of N43 million in its account with number 1005789787 at Keystone Bank, but no bus was delivered.

AYFIR Construction Limited got a total of N86 million in its account number 1014049038 at Zenith Bank but failed to supply two buses to Victory College Ikare Akoko in Ondo state and Onitolo Secondary School, Lagos respectively.

Impeccable sources at OSSAP-SDGs told this newspaper late Tuesday that there has been plan to re-award the contracts of the bus supplies in a bid to cover up the scandal, but during the interview with Mr Hamad Kawu, it was demanded that funds for non-supply of all the buses should be returned to Nigeria Treasury and evidences of the payment of the money paid back to the purse of the government should be made available for Nigerians to see.

Meanwhile, some Nigerians who reacted on the latest discovery at OSSAP-SDGs wanted tougher punishment given to whoever is found culpable in the. diversion of the public funds

A lawyer and human right activist, Dr Zubar Mohammed called for the resignation of the Chief of staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila to clear his name from this monumental fraud, while the SSA-SDGs to the President, Mrs. Orelope-Adefulire and some top management staff at OSSAP-SDGs should be arrested and prosecuted in the court of law if anti- corruption crusade of President Bola Tinubu would be taken seriously.

He demanded for special investigators to investigate OSSAP-SDGs activities since 2016 till today to unravel the magnitude of rots that have been taken place in that project office.