In what look like acceptance of guilty, Princess Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire, the Senior Special Assistant (SSA) to President Bola Tinubu on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) has hurriedly begun to supply buses to ten schools which supposed to have received the delivery of the vehicles four years ago after the contractors had been allegedly paid the sum of N443 millions.

Last week, this newspaper broke the news of how OSSAP-SDGs had paid some contractors in May 2021 for the purchase and supply of 27-seater Youton buses to some public schools in Ondo, Oyo and Lagos states, and despite receiving the payments, the contractors failed to deliver the buses, while OSSAP-SDGs looked the other way.

Surprisingly, when the news of this fraud broke out, it was discovered that the buses that were supposed to have been supplied since 2021 were hurriedly being delivered to the various schools on 30th January 2024.

By not delivering the buses as at when due, OSSAP-SDGs, the contractors and those behind the fraud, did not only subjected the beneficiary schools and students to pain and agony of transportation but deliberately denied them dividend of democracy.

In the course of our investigation, this newspaper had a conversation with Mr Hamad Kawu, the Secretary of the Program at OSSAP-SDGs who revealed that the buses were delivered to one of the leaders of the Houses of Representatives for onward delivery to the beneficiary constituencies.

But contrary to Mr Kawu’s submission, on site assessments of these vehicles and interviews with management of those schools, it was discovered that no bus was delivered.

Further pressure by this newspaper on OSSAP-SDGs to compel the contractors to refund the money collected for the buses to the purse of the Federal Government led to the hurry delivery of the buses to the affected schools on 30th January.

It is sad to note that this fraud could be used to describe the characters of our elected representatives because if the buses were bought and given to them in 2021, as allegedly by Mr Kawu, where did they keep the buses since 2021? This means they initially diverted the vehicles for their private use, and after the scandal broke out, they started returning the buses to those schools.

It was discovered that the Nigerian Government bought brand new buses for them in 2021, and for reasons best known to them, they decided to deliver fairly used buses to the schools in 2024.

Effort by this newspaper to get necessary documents of the supply on those vehicles as promised earlier by Mr Kawu has proved abortive as he blocked his number from receiving WhatsApp messages.

A concern Nigerian who spoke to this newspaper on this issue, Dr Kingsley Hygenius, described the action of OSSAP-SDGs as outright stealing.

He wants Orelope-Adefulire, top management of the Office and the House of Representatives members involved to be investigated and made to face the full wrath of the law.

“The level at which official corruption has destroyed this nation is becoming alarming. What is the explanation for buses that supposed to have been delivered since 2021 now resurface from nowhere in January 2024. This is a complete fraud. President Bola Tinubu must sanitise the system and flush out these bad eggs in the government,” Dr Hygenius, a Lagos-based lawyer said.

Below are the names of the schools, the contractors with account numbers and amount collected for the supply of the buses in 2021.

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.