Misplaced Priority: Instead Of Road Maintenance, FERMA MD Chukewuemeka Agbasi Burns N7.23 Billion On Solar Lights Contracts In Three Years

Secrets Reporters

The Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA), created to keep Nigeria’s federal highways motorable, spent N7,224,440,721.34 installing solar-powered street lights in 273 separate payments between November 2023 and June 2026 while the roads repairs went undone, SecretsReporters has found out

The payments scattered solar installations across local government areas, wards, districts and “selected locations” in virtually every geopolitical zone from Zango district in Kano to Biu town in Borno, from Jigawa North-West to communities in the South-South.

FERMA’s core job is road maintenance. In the same period, it spent N107 billion on 1,394 road-works payments. The N7.22 billion solar programme ran alongside that core spending as a parallel universe of community lighting contracts.

Where the money went

The pattern in spending the money is unmistakable as these are not highway lighting projects. They are ward-level and LGA-level installations, the classic footprint of constituency projects, executed through a road maintenance agency.

On September 14, 2025, FERMA paid Brixwell Design Ltd Abuja N410,634,770.00 for solar street lights in Zango district, Kano State. On December 31, 2025, the agency paid K-Class Multi Global Engineering Ltd N327,315,619.71 for solar street lights on the Ewaja-Umuagbo-Nkalagu road in Enugu State, and C & K Engineering and Allied Services Ltd N249,975,193.12 for solar street lights on the Agumu-Ichi Agu road in Igboeze, Enugu State. This is the biggest single tranche

On December 30, 2023, FERMA paid AA Pavements and Contracting Ltd Garki N249,956,873.68 for solar street lights from the LGA junction Kwoi-Ngarshan in Kaduna State, and Pacific Bitumen and Roads Ltd N249,945,345.04 for security solar lights in major streets of Shaffa Hawul, Borno State. On September 14, 2025, the agency paid Chachil Investment Nigeria Ltd N246,525,528.00 for 3-in-1 solar street lights in various locations in Jigawa North-West. And on December 31, 2023, FERMA paid AA Pavements and Contracting Ltd Garki another N205,081,022.00 for solar lights in the College of Education Waka/Nigeria Army University Biu – relocated to Bayan Tasha Dugja ward, Biu town.

The copy-paste tranches

Dozens of the solar payments arrived in identical or near-identical sums to different contractors. Three contractors received exactly N16,647,447.00 each for solar street lights in April 2025 and November 2023. Another three received exactly N16,630,245.00 each between May and July 2025. Three more got N16,569,615.00 each for solar inverter systems.

Identical pricing across different contractors, locations and dates does not prove the jobs were split to dodge procurement thresholds but the Public Procurement Act sets competitive thresholds precisely to prevent contract splitting, and only FERMA’s procurement records can show whether these were separately and competitively procured. But the pattern is one the Bureau of Public Procurement exists to interrogate, and the Fiscal Responsibility Act demands that public funds be applied efficiently and for the purposes appropriated.

The contracts owners

AA Pavements and Contracting Ltd, which collected over N455 million from FERMA for solar street lights, has no public footprint at all with no director names, RC number, incorporation date, website or news mention was found in public records.

The only trace found for Brixwell Design Ltd is “Brixwell Design Ltd Estate,” listed as a housing development at S Asebe Street, Kado, Abuja with no owner, director, RC number or date attached. The one real-world trace suggests a property or construction outfit, paid N410.6 million for solar street lights.

The investigation’s ownership research did not cover K-Class Multi Global Engineering Ltd, C & K Engineering and Allied Services Ltd, Pacific Bitumen and Roads Ltd or Chachil Investment Nigeria Ltd; their directors and shareholders were not established from public records.

The Heriprom connection

One name ties the solar spending back to FERMA’s biggest road contractors. Overflowing Blessings Nigeria Limited collected N104,275,963.82 across six solar street-light payments from the agency. Its chief executive, Ademola A. Adedapo, is also the chief executive of Heriprom Engineering Limited which is the contractor that received N2.04 billion from FERMA for road rehabilitation in Lagos East communities, including a N450 million advance. Adedapo also heads Limitless Engineering Consultants Ltd, making three companies under one chief executive, all reported compliant with pension regulations.

Adedapo is a chartered civil engineer who joined the Federal Ministry of Works in 1999 as a contract administrator and project engineer, rising to serve as Special Assistant (Technical) to federal highways directors between 2006 and 2009 before moving into private contracting. There is nothing unlawful about a former ministry official owning companies that win government contracts, but the concentration with three companies, one owner, N2.14 billion from one agency is exactly the kind of related-party footprint that procurement disclosures are meant to expose.