Do Nigerian Governors Make Money from Insecurity?

Added: 2026-05-23

[00:00:00]March 17th, 2022. Mutala Muhammad International Airport, Lagos, Nigeria. A man walks through the terminal. A few hours ago, he was one of the most powerful men in southeastern Nigeria.

[00:00:14]Now is a civilian. He handed over power earlier today. His immunity is gone and he has a ticket to Houston, Texas. What he may not realize is that months ago, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission asked immigration to put his name on a watch list. The moment officers see his passport, they make a call. Within minutes, ESC operatives arrive. They stop him before he boards.

[00:00:42]His name is Willie Obiano. And the question the EFCC once answered is what did he do with 4 billion naira that was supposed to keep his people safe. But this story isn't about one governor.

[00:00:57]This is about a line built in every state budget in Nigeria. A line that moves hundreds of billions of naira every year. Nobody audits it. Nobody oversees it. And when the money disappears, which it does, there is no system designed to find out where it went. This is the story of how Nigerian governors make money from security vaults.

[00:01:21]>> The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission E FCC has arrested the immediate past Anomra governor Willie Obiano at the Mel Muhammad International Airport, Lagos.

[00:01:31]>> To understand what security votes is, you have to go back to the 1960s.

[00:01:37]Nigeria is under military rule. Generals run the country. And when soldiers run a country, security means whatever they say it means. During the reign of General Yakub Goan, state military administrators were given small slush funds, cash, no receipts, no questions.

[00:01:57]The labor on the money was security vault. The real purpose was to keep civilian elites happy and to keep the generals in control. Under Babangida and then Abbacha, security votes got bigger, much much bigger. By the time Abbacha was done, he and his people had used over 60 fake security vote letters to pull more than 2 billion US out of the central bank. Most of it in cash delivered to his house in bags. The rest through travelers checks and wire transfers. All of it under the label security. And then in 1999, Nigeria returned to democracy. The generals left power. Civilians took over. But the security vote didn't leave. It survived that transition like a parasite jumping host. The new civilian governors inherited a military era slush fund. And nobody thought to kill it. Now, here's what makes security votes different from almost everything else in Nigeria's government. They have no legal basis.

[00:03:03]They are not even in the 1999 constitution. They are not in any federal law. There is no statute that says governors should receive them. And there is no regulation that says how they should be spent. They exist totally in a gray zone, not authorized but not prohibited, a ghost in the budget. And so every month each governor gets a lump sum, sometimes in cash for unforeseen security needs, paying informance, funding emergency operations, sometimes supplementing the police. That is the official story. But now look at the numbers. In 2018, Transparency International and Nigeria's own civil society legislative advocacy center published the most comprehensive investigation into these security votes ever conducted. They estimated that across all levels of government that is federal, state and local, roughly 241 billion naira was being spent every year on security votes. That was about $670 million US at the time.

[00:04:10]State governors accounted for the bulk of it. By 2025, an analysis of actual approved budget documents sourced from budget open states platform revealed that over just 3 years from 2023 to 2025, governors had budgeted 525 billion naira for security votes. That is just 3 years. And the data didn't even include every state. half a trillion naira approved in state budgets with no oversight, no audit, no accountability and almost none of it has ever been accounted for. But the thing about ghost is sometimes they leave fingerprints.

[00:04:50]Willie Obiano becomes governor of Anra state in March 2014. And from the very beginning, money flows into a specific bank account, Fidelity Bank, with account number 503000550875.

[00:05:06]The Anra state government security vote account. There are two signaries on this account, the governor's principal private secretary, Willie Mokoy, and a government house accountant, Teopilos.

[00:05:20]Every week, sometimes every day, a banker from Fidelity named Ugotu visits the government house in Oka. He manages this account. He processes checks. He balances the books. This goes on for 8 years. But the money isn't going to police operations. He's not even funding informants. He's not buying equipment. Is going somewhere else entirely. From the security vote account, money flows out to private companies, companies with accounts at the same Fidelity Bank branch, companies that have no business relationship with the Anra State Government. Moment of Peace Ventures receives 1.2 billion NRA.

[00:06:04]NASDAQ Ventures receives 659 million.

[00:06:07]Easy Diamond Integrated Link receives 261 million. Expressive consult receives 127 million. nine companies in total over 4 billion naira and then Jerry's the case of CI Party Ventures. A woman named Chinu Patricia Bunam runs a small business in Onisha. In May 2022, she gets a phone call from the EFCC to tell her that 156.8 million NRA passed through her company's account from the Anra state government, but she has no idea what they are talking about. She never signed a contract. She never did business with the state. What happened was this. She had asked her bank officer to boost her account balance so she could meet embassy requirements for a visa. The officer agreed and then used her account as a transit pipe. State money in shell company out. The account was never to control. That is how the first layer works. State money in, shell company out. But the money doesn't stop there. The shell companies pay bid change operators. This is the critical step. This is where traceable naira becomes untraceable dollars. Hayatu Hassan runs five BDC companies. In February and March 2018 alone, he converts 222 million naira from Anra state accounts into $600,000 in cash. He sells the dollars to another BDC operator named Aayubatko. But here's what makes this worse. A CBN licensing officer later testified that one of Tango's companies, Zigga Zigga Trading, had been delisted by the central bank before 2014. Before Obiano even took office, they were using a dead company to wash the money. Between April and December 2017, Tango converts 416 million NRA into $1.137 million in cash.

[00:08:08]And the cash allegedly goes to the governor personally physically handed over by his chief protocol officer Uzu Buna or cowboy total diverted over 4 billion naira across 5 years through nine companies into dollars into cash into the governor's hands and on the day he leaves office March 1722 he heads straight to the airport with a ticket to Houston the EFC is already there. After his arrest, an OCCP investigation found that Oanoa and his wife had transferred ownership of six apartments in Texas worth approximately $1.8 million. In 2022, they sold two of the apartments. In 2024, they moved four more into a family controlled company called Will Investments. Now, the investigation was careful to note that they couldn't prove those houses were in fact bought with security vote money.

[00:09:10]That distinction should be made. Four of the six apartments were purchased before Obiano even became governor when he was still a banker. That connection hasn't been made in court yet. But the pattern tells a story all on his own. Money leaves the state treasury as naira. It gets converted into dollars through BDC's. dollars allegedly go to the governor in cash and after eight years the governor has properties abroad.

[00:09:38]Well, Obiano got caught. Most governors don't. In December 2025, the head of Nigeria's anti-corruption agency, EFC chairman Ola Olo gave a speech at Sam Ednan Air Force Base in Lagos. He said billions of naira are collected monthly by state governors and security votes without accountability.

[00:10:00]He said those funds are quote converted into foreign currency through bureau change and moved abroad or invested in phony schemes unrelated to security.

[00:10:10]This isn't one governor. This is the system. 36 governors, 774 local government chairman, each one collecting security votes, each one answering to nobody. An analysis of approved state budget documents sourced from Bod's open states platform found that between 2023 and 2025 governors collectively approved 525 billion naira in security vote allocations. In a single year 2025 alone the total hit 210 billion. But there are three reasons why nobody stops it. First there is no law to break. Security votes have no constitutional basis, but they are not explicitly prohibited either. Governors operate in a gray zone that has protected them for decades. Secondly, the money moves in cash, naira to BDC to dollars. By the time it reaches a BDC operator, it's already untraceable.

[00:11:08]One reason the EFCC could build the Obiano case was that they had the bank officer who managed the account, a rare evidentiary break. And then thirdly, immunity. Section 308 of the 1999 constitution says sitting governors cannot be arrested or prosecuted. The EFCC can investigate while a governor is in office, but they can't touch him.

[00:11:31]They can only act after he leaves and by then the money is usually long gone.

[00:11:36]Rubiano was arrested hours after handover. That's how narrow the window is. But there is one court ruling that changed the game and it starts with another governor. Jolinami was governor of Taraba state from 1999 to 2007.

[00:11:53]After he left office, the EFCC charged him with diverting 1.64 billion naira in public funds including security votes.

[00:12:01]In May 2018, a court convicted him on 27 counts and sentenced him to 14 years in prison. But the real landmark came 6 months later when the court of appeal in a judgment read by justice Emmanuel Agim now a Supreme Court justice made a ruling that applies to every governor in Nigeria. He declared that there is quote a pervasive tendency by public officers to regard or treat security votes given to them for security of the state as their personal entitlement or funds. He called this belief completely wrong. Any officer in charge of such funds, he said, must account for them or return them to the public coffers. Failure to do so, he ruled, would amount to stealing. The court of appeal reduced Nyame's sentence to 12 years. The Supreme Court upheld it in February 2020. However, in April 2022, a certain incorruptible president Bhari pardoned Nyame and 157 others. The law says security votes are not free money, but the system keeps finding ways to make sure the people who steal them walk away free. Between 2023 and 2025, Benry state governor approved 36.87 billion NRA in security votes. In 2026 alone, the budget allocated 41.85 85 billion NRA for security. Now look at what happened with that money. The state's Q120 performance report. The government's own document shows that of 41.85 billion naira budgeted for security only 111 million was actually released and spent in the first quarter that is 0.3%.

[00:13:48]The Ben Bureau of Homeland Security which was created by the governor in July 2024 received zero for staff overhead or equipment that is zero.

[00:13:59]While the state's people were getting killed on the night of June 13, 2025 armed militants attacked yellow water in Gum Binu state. They burned a market where displaced families were sheltering. Community leaders and the Catholic dasis of Makodi estimated that over 200 people were killed though the state government as usual disputed those figures claiming only 45 were killed.

[00:14:25]About 3,000 people were driven away from their homes. In the months that followed, attacks continued. Kwandi 17 killed Easter 2026 17 killed. Apa ando 14 killed including immo police officer 41.85 85 billion NRA project budgeted for security. 0.3% released, hundreds dead. And this is not just a Benway state affair. The federal government's own records show that in 2025, the Nigerian army was supposed to receive 336 billion naira for defense equipment.

[00:15:01]The actual amount released well 16.7 billion NRA. The minister of state for defense admitted in a budget session that group life insurance for soldiers killed fighting boo haram went unpaid.

[00:15:15]He asked the national assembly for an additional 20 billion naira just to cover the families of dead soldiers. The money meant to protect Nigerians isn't reaching the people who do the protecting. And the sad part of this is that the more kidnappings, the more massacres, the more insecurity happens in a state, the more money that state governor can justify collecting under security vote. And the more money they collect, the less reaches actual security operations, which makes things worse, which then justifies collecting even more money. This is a loop.

[00:15:53]Transparency International identified this circle in 2018. They wrote, quote, "Security votes have become a self-perpetuating cause and consequence of security sector corruption.

[00:16:06]The more that federal officials embezzle or skimp on funding security agencies, the more conditions deteriorate and the stronger the apparent rationale for security votes grows. It is a system and this system runs on blood. In that December 2025 speech, EFCC chairman Oluko didn't just talk about stolen money. He said something much darker. He called corruption quote the real elephant in the room behind Nigeria's worsening insecurity.

[00:16:38]He wasn't speaking vaguely. He was connecting two failures. First, billions in security was collected by governors converted into dollars and moved abroad while communities go unprotected.

[00:16:52]Second, billions in defense procurement funds that never reach the troops. He told the audience that the EFCC had found resources meant for the procurement of equipment in the fight against terrorism, ending up in the pockets of some senior officers. a reality exposed by the investigation into the $2.1 billion arm scandal. Two different mechanism, same result. Money for weapons that never arrive. Money for operations that never happen. Money that moves through BDC's into dollars and out of the country. All while soldiers go unpaid and villages get burnt. Security votes don't fail despite the money. They fail because of the money. In January 2026, an organization called SERAP, the Social Economic Rights and Accountability Project filed a lawsuit.

[00:17:48]This lawsuit was filed at the Federal High Court in Abuja. The defendants were all the 36 state governors and ex minister Samuk. The goal was to make the defendants tell the Nigerian people where the security vote money went every na since May 2023.

[00:18:06]Serap's filing cited the Supreme Court's recent ruling that the Freedom of Information Act applies to all state government records, meaning governors can no longer hide behind the excuse that their states haven't adopted FOI laws. Meanwhile, in Abuja, Willie Obiano's trial is now frozen. The judge who had nine prosecution witnesses was suspended for misconduct in an unrelated case. A new judge was assigned. But on November 20, 2025, the ESC asked the court to adjun the case indefinitely to let the suspended judge finish when he returns rather than start the case from scratch. The court granted the request.

[00:18:49]The case now is in limbo. They still plead not guilty. And I know before this video you might have thought security votes were a boring line in the state budget, but now I hope you know what they actually are. They are the largest unodudited spending mechanism in Nigeria, a relic of military rule that survived the transition to democracy.

[00:19:13]They have no legal basis. They are transacted in cash. They are not overseen by any legislature. They are not audited by any agency. And the court of appeal has already told us what to call it. When a governor takes this money and doesn't account for it, it is stealing. So it is apparent Nigeria doesn't have a security problem. We have a security vote problem.