Nigeria’s presidency made a N10 million advance payment to a personal account belonging to one Abbas Haruna Katsalla to purchase consumables for Nana Shettima, the wife of Vice President Kashim Shettima, FIJ has gathered.

In what appears to be a violation of multiple laws, the state house headquarters facilitated the payment on March 15, 2024. They logged the transaction as catering to the needs of the “office of the wife of the VP”, a fictional office with no constitutional backing.

FIJ toured the state house’s transaction records for 2024 as published on the Open Treasury Portal and duplicated on the Govspend Portal and found the odd transaction with payment number 1001161608-2 described as: “Being payment of cash advance granted for the purchase of consumables items, for the office of her excellency, wife of the VP.”

The office of the wife of the vice president is unconstitutional. Despite this, it is listed on the state house’s website with Nana’s image.

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FIJ also looked into the legality of Katsalla receiving money into his personal account from the government.

Chapter 7, Section 713 of Nigeria’s Financial Regulations (2009), states: “Personal money shall in no circumstances be paid into a government bank account, nor shall any public money be paid into a private account. Any officer who pays public money into a private account is deemed to have done so with fraudulent intention.”

This legal provision would mean the State House has erred in its dealings with the individual, and such dealing, according to the law, is deemed fraudulent.

It is not the first time a family member of an elected member of the presidency has benefited from such transactions. FIJ earlier reported how the vice president’s office paid N10 million to offset hotel accommodation cost for guests of Folashade Tinubu, the president’s daughter.

Earlier in the year, President Bola Tinubu suspended Betta Edu, humanitarian affairs and poverty alleviation minister, over payments from her office to several private accounts.

Edu faced fraud probe for ordering the transfer of N585.2 million into the private bank account of the accountant in charge of grants for vulnerable Nigerians.

Confirming the suspension at the time, Ajuri Ngelale, spokesman for the president, described the move as Tinubu’s commitment to upholding the highest standards of integrity, transparency and accountability in the management of the commonwealth of Nigerians.