Ebonyi Governor Francis Nwifuru Buried N20 Billion For Purchase of Four Armoured Vehicles Inside “Research and Development”

Secrets Reporters 

“Purchase of 4nos Armoured Vehichels – Department of Special Project and implementation (mobilisation).” That is how the official spending records of Ebonyi State, examined by Secrets Reporters which lists four armoured vehicles for N20,000,000,000 and classify the purchase as research and development.

The line sits under the Governor’s Office capital vote for 2026, which totals N22,015,000,000. The arithmetic is blunt: one line, for four vehicles, takes 90.8 per cent of the governor’s entire capital budget for the year. Every other capital item in the Governor’s Office such as building works, equipment, furnishings shares the remaining N2,015,000,000.

The records code it as 23050101, RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT. The purchase is described as a mobilisation for the Department of Special Project and Implementation. No further detail is given. The document says nothing about the type of vehicles, the intended users, or the supplier.

The line is new as the records show no provision for it in 2025. It did not exist in the state’s books before this year, and now it is the single largest capital item in the Governor’s Office.

Official quarterly spending records for the first half of 2026, January to June, show the Governor’s Office capital actual at N136,678,075 which is 0.6 per cent of the approved capital vote. SecretsReporters found no public evidence that the four armoured vehicles have been delivered. No announcement of a handover, no ceremony, no statement from the Government House identifying four armoured vehicles arriving in Ebonyi..

For context, the Governor’s Office is not the state’s security apparatus. Ebonyi has a police command, a military formation, and other security agencies. The state’s own officials have spoken publicly of the governor’s investments in security, including patrol vehicles donated to security agencies this year

The classification is the sharpest edge examined by this newspaper. “Research and development” is a budget category for laboratories, studies, prototypes not the procurement of four armoured cars. The document offers no explanation for why a N20 billion mobilisation for vehicles was parked under that code rather than under transport equipment or security logistics.