Nigerian Correctional Service CG Sylvster Nwakuche Pays Over N300 Million Into Private Hands And More Into Ghost Companies

Secrets Reporters

Beyond the feeding contracts, the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCS) payment records under Controller-General Sylvester Ndidi Nwakuche show public money paid to named individuals, single-engagement consultancy fees running into hundreds of millions, and vague “welfare” and “aftercare” votes paid to companies the Corporate Affairs Commission cannot find or lists as inactive.

The most striking entry is dated October 17, 2025: N7,430,522 paid to Mohammed M. Usman, described as “Yobe ration for July 2025.” Ration money are funds meant for feeding inmates but routed to a private individual rather than a corporate vendor. The Financial Regulations frown on this exact transaction and regulation 3115 sanctions poor cash management including the channelling of public funds into personal hands, and regulation 617 requires corporate bodies to be paid into their nominated accounts. The Procurement Act does allow a natural person to be a contractor, so the payment is not unlawful on that ground alone. The red flag is that contract funds for feeding hundreds of inmates appear to have bypassed every corporate channel.

Two months later, on December 30, 2025, the records show N5,002,000 paid to Igomu Joseph Augustine for an “advanced command course for controllers.” Office of the Accountant-General circular caps cash advances for purchases at N200,000, requiring anything above that to be contracted out, and the Financial Regulations require all advances to be retired within the financial year, with no fresh advance issued while an earlier one stands unretired. A N5 million course payment to an individual invites the question of how it was advanced, documented and retired.

On October 30, 2025, One Minute Synergy Works Limited received N38,250,000 tagged simply “payment of prisoners welfare.” The same day, Ade Atoyebi Nig Ent Ltd got N39,143,750 for “payment for aftercare expenses.” On the last day of the year, Ramahsalam Integrated Venture collected an exact N45,000,000 for “welfare materials and preventive materials.” And on July 23, 2025, S-Jay Creative Ltd, a company whose name suggests creative services was paid N38,138,120 for “payment of after care for April 2025.”

Ade Atoyebi Nig Ent Ltd has no record on the CAC portal under any variant searched. Ramahsalam Integrated Venture is marked inactive, registered in October 2018. S-Jay Creative Ltd is marked inactive, registered in September 2017. One Minute Synergy Works, active on CAC records since 2021, went on to collect a total of N239,970,999 in the window, including a N155,382,249 single-day ration payment on December 31, 2025.

The single largest one-off in the 2025 records is the N151,103,317 paid on October 30, 2025 to Yemi Olugbile & Co for engaging an estate surveyor and valuer over compensation for economic trees and other valuations. The firm is real enough as a professional practice as it is registered with the Estate Surveyors and Valuers Registration Board of Nigeria and its principal was inducted a fellow of the national institution in 2023 but its CAC business-name record is marked inactive. As a consultancy engagement above N25 million, the May 2025 BPP thresholds place it beyond the accounting officer’s approval and before the Parastatals Tenders Board; above N100 million, consultant selection is meant to follow quality-and-cost-based selection, and section 16(4) of the Procurement Act voids awards above threshold made without a Bureau of Public Procurement certificate of no objection. 

Then there is the insurance line. Swat Insurance Brokers Limited received seven payments of exactly N7,541,788 totalling N52,792,515 described as insurance brokerage. Seven identical payments to the naira suggest a standing arrangement, yet the CAC portal returns no record of a Swat Insurance Brokers Limited. Brokerage commissions paid to an unregistered broker sit uneasily with section 16(6)(b) of the Procurement Act on the legal capacity of bidders.

The drug-supply cluster carries the same registry problem. Pevor Ventures, paid N56,445,274 for drugs across four payments, has no CAC record. Spring Household Limited, paid N49,541,622 across four, has none either. ANGB Divine Business Concepts, paid N49,504,222, is marked inactive, as is Bluoxygen Technology Limited, paid N48,384,299