Financial records from the Federal Co-operative College, Oji River, have unveiled a pattern of concentrated contract payments that raises significant questions regarding procurement transparency under the leadership of the Provost, Dr. Jude Ejikeme Obidiegwu. Between November 2024 and June 2026, over 550 beneficiaries received payments, but the lion’s share of funds was funneled to a small, interconnected group of contractors.
Leading the list of recipients is Progressive Contractors Ltd, which received over N3.15 billion for a diverse array of projects ranging from rural road construction and hospital rehabilitation to the supply of agricultural inputs and vehicles. Close behind are Gold Reef Construction Ltd, Hard Harts Construction Ltd, Handerson Builders Ltd, and Swam Construction Ltd, each securing multi-billion naira payouts. The nature of these payments is notably broad; companies identified primarily as construction firms were frequently commissioned for unrelated projects, such as agricultural training and the supply of household goods.
The investigative data reveals a striking financial signature: 34 separate payments of exactly N447,500,000 were issued to 26 different companies on three specific dates in 2025. Totaling over N15 billion, these disbursements were designated for rural roads, market rehabilitations, and hospital upgrades. Curiously, many of the firms receiving these funds were incorporated within a narrow window between February and April 2023, often sharing near-sequential registration numbers. While such patterns do not constitute an explicit legal verdict, they sit in stark contrast to the competitive bidding requirements mandated by the Public Procurement Act of 2007.
The corporate linkages go beyond just timing and sequential numbers. Detailed filings reveal that several of the major contractors share common directors or individuals with significant control. For example, entities linked to the Ifekudu family—including Gold Reef Villa Ltd, Gold Reef Consult Ltd, and Corporate Bomanti Ltd—appear prominently in the records. Similarly, other clusters have emerged involving shared addresses and recurring officers, such as the trio of Techtap Consult Limited, Cinedox Solution Limited, and Alpuba Services Limited, all of which are managed by the same group of individuals and registered to overlapping office locations.
These companies have not escaped wider scrutiny. Records indicate that several firms listed as major beneficiaries at the Oji River college are also subjects of interest in separate inquiries regarding contract irregularities at the Ogun-Osun River Basin Development Authority. Additionally, documentation from a National Assembly investigative hearing in 2024 identified several of these same contractors, including Diamond Leeds Ltd and Swam Construction Ltd, in connection with terminated government projects.
Further discrepancies appear in the official college payment records, where several beneficiary names are misspelled or truncated. In some instances, payments were released to entities whose registration status with the Corporate Affairs Commission is listed as inactive, such as Bajem Trust Limited. According to the Companies and Allied Matters Act 2020, active corporate status is a prerequisite for participating in public contracts, yet these payments proceeded regardless of the registered standing of the companies involved. As these records continue to surface, they highlight an urgent need for an audit into how procurement processes are managed and monitored within federal institutions.
Source: NaijaProbe