Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire is under the spotlight after FIJ reported how the Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on SDGs (OSSAP-SDGs), which she heads, gave a N147.1 million classroom blocks building contract to a restaurant.

But this is not the first time the office headed by the former Lagos State Deputy Governor has been linked to financial mismanagement. With tax evasion, public procurement law violation and corruption all arising from FIJ’s recent exposé, FIJ has found that the SDGs office has some corruption history.

Two years before FIJ’s findings, a Federal High Court in Lagos ordered the interim forfeiture of N241 million that was illegally diverted from the OSSAP-SDGs account, with sources now telling FIJ the announced figure was miles below the real value.

This N241 million forfeiture followed an ex parte application filed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

The EFCC had accused Abdulsalam Bawa, a principal accountant in the SDGs office, of conspiring with some SDG staff to divert the money into unnamed First City Monument Bank and Zenith bank accounts in the sums of N65 million, N61 million, N50 million and N65 million.

READ MORE: SPECIAL REPORT: 2 Weeks Before End of Buhari’s Tenure, Special Assistant Adejoke Adefulire Paid a Restaurant N147.1m to Build Classrooms in Lagos. A Lot Was Amiss

The agency also said the suspects purchased Real Tower Centre Shopping Complex at Plot 1121, Ekukinam Street, Utako District, Cadastral Zone, Abuja, with proceeds of other fund diversions.

Justice Nicholas Oweibo ordered the interim forfeiture of the money and the building to the federal government.

In a four-page affidavit deposed to by Ebunoluwa Amusan, an EFCC operative, the commission linked Kouchdim Unity Nigeria Limited and Lankass Global Ventures to the diversion.

“Our investigation revealed that one Abdulsalam Bawa, the key suspect, is a signatory to two corporate accounts where money from the agency and those meant for other organisations for projects was diverted to these companies’ accounts, and then further diverted to meet the suspects’ selfish ends,” Amusan said.

“Investigation also revealed that Bawa is not a shareholder nor is he listed as a shareholder in any of these companies, Kouchdim Unity Nigeria Ltd and Lankass Global Ventures, but he is a signatory to the companies’ accounts.

“Investigation revealed Remita inflows traced from the Central Bank of Nigeria, meant for other organisations and for projects were traced to the suspect’s personal and corporate accounts.”

However, a source very close to the SDGs office has now told FIJ that Abdulsalam merely took the fall for Orelope-Adefulire, and that then funds linked to her office were way higher than was reported by the EFCC.

“Whatever happened to the case! Abdulsalam Bawa took the fall for ‘mama’ and the EFCC did their thing, and that’s why the matter died,” said the source, who asked not to be named for fear of retribution. “Also, Abdul was actually found with billions, but they reported millions to press.”

The source said every contractor knew Abdul was the payment guy, Orelope-Adefulire’s most trusted ‘boy’.

“All payment vouchers passed through him; he also didn’t remit taxes due to the government, of course in connivance with the Accountant-General whom some of you later discovered to have siphoned N80bn,” he added, a development that was generously covered by the media.

“Ask anyone who used to work for any top government contractor and they would confirm it when I say that nothing you see or read about that office is real.

“The misappropriation and squandering of public funds is unimaginable. If you’re in the good books of ‘mama’ [Orelope-Adefulire], you’ll be swimming in billions sooner than later. It did not even matter if you were a staff or contractor.”

In FIJ’s report, Orelope-Adefulire was exposed for sending N147.1 million from the federal government’s purse into the account of a restaurant to build a block of six classrooms and a skill acquisition centre in a primary school in Lagos — a transaction that was made two weeks before the end of the Muhammadu Buhari presidency.