A House of Representatives member, Hon James Faleke representing Ikeja Federal constituency of Lagos state used the Federal Cooperative College, Kaduna to purchase vehicles worth over N230 million for traditional rulers in Ikeja, SaharaReporters has learnt.
A thorough examination of the financial records made publicly available through the Govspend portal has uncovered an expenditure of N230 million by the Federal Cooperatives College in Kaduna.
This substantial sum was allocated towards the procurement of luxury SUV vehicles and cars for traditional rulers residing within the Ikeja Federal constituency. A closer analysis of the data reveals that these transactions occurred between August 2023 and December 2023.
Notably, on August 15, 2023, Joydrill Integrated Services Limited was awarded a lucrative contract valued at N108.6 million for the supply of SUVs and cars to these traditional leaders. Furthermore, an additional payment of N8.5 million was made on August 16, 2023, with Talu Tandu Nigeria Limited securing the contract to provide SUVs and cars aimed at bolstering the influence of traditional rulers within the Ikeja federal constituency.
On December 18, 2023, a substantial payment of N108.6 million was made to Joydrill Integrated Services Limited, a company entrusted with the supply of luxury SUV vehicles in Ikeja, Lagos State.
This transaction was preceded by another significant expenditure on December 16, 2023, wherein N5.8 million was allocated towards the provision of SUVs and cars for traditional rulers within the same Ikeja Lagos State jurisdiction, with Elon Construction Limited securing the contract.
The Federal Cooperative College, responsible for these transactions, is headquartered in Kaduna, sparking curiosity regarding the nature of the connection between the lawmaker James Faleke and Joydrill Integrated Services Limited, the recipient of the lucrative SUV supply contracts.
Faleke holds a dual role of significant influence, serving as the representative of the Ikeja Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives and concurrently chairing the esteemed Senate Committee on Finance.
Interestingly, the traditional rulers who benefited from the supply of luxury SUVs are from the same Ikeja Federal Constituency that Faleke represents.
Prior to the filing of this report, Tracka, a renowned public contracts monitoring organization, had already brought attention to Faleke’s questionable awarding of a contract to Joydrill Integrated Services for the installation of solar lights in Ikeja.
Specifically, Tracka’s investigation revealed that Faleke had misleadingly presented the contract as a personal donation, while also highlighting concerns that several of the installed solar lights were found to be non-functional.
Further investigation has uncovered a startling connection between Joydrill Integrated Services and Honourable James Faleke’s constituency projects. The company, previously involved in the controversial Ikeja solar light installation contract, was also awarded the contract for supplying luxury SUVs to traditional rulers within Faleke’s Ikeja Federal Constituency.
According to Ahmed Usman, spokesperson for the Federal Cooperative College, Kaduna, Faleke utilized the college’s name to execute the SUV supply project as his constituency initiative.
This revelation raises concerns regarding Faleke’s use of proxy institutions for personal gain.
“Yes, it was carried out by Honorable Faleke using the school. It was executed as a constituency project by him,” he told SaharaReporters.
He also noted that the pictures of the vehicles are in the school.
Despite Faleke’s highly publicized distribution of vehicles to esteemed traditional rulers in February 2024, uncertainty surrounds the origin and funding of these generosity-driven gestures.
Specifically, it remains ambiguous whether these vehicles are, in fact, the same ones purchased at a substantial cost of N230 million, utilizing the name of the Federal Cooperative College, Kaduna, as a purported facilitator.
A lawyer, Festus Ogun, told SaharaReporters that Nigerian law allows lawmakers to execute different constituency projects through different agencies. He, however, noted that SUVs for traditional rulers will not in any way benefit the people, so it should not qualify as a constituency project.
“My interest is that if vehicles constitute constituency projects, buying vehicles for traditional rulers will not benefit the people, which is the essence of constituency projects. It is a gross abuse of the law,” he said.
The Executive Director of Paradigm Leadership Initiative, Segun Elemo, noted that if the vehicles are budgeted for, they may not constitute an illegality as lawmakers use different ministries, departments and agencies of government to carry out their constituency projects.
He, however, questioned the rationale behind the acquisition of vehicles for traditional rulers when the people are hungry.
“The issue at hand is however why he would buy vehicles with such money when people are hungry; it is a moral issue,” he told SaharaReporters.
Despite attempts to secure clarification, SaharaReporters was unable to get a response from Faleke concerning his involvement in contracts awarded for vehicle supply to traditional council members within his constituency.
Repeated messages sent to Faleke’s official phone contact remained unanswered at the time of reporting. Additionally, Joydrill Integrated Services, the contract beneficiary, could not be reached for comment due to their limited online footprint and unavailability of contact information.
