Investigative journalist Fisayo Soyombo has alleged that persistent killings and insecurity across Nigeria are directly linked to deep-rooted corruption within the country’s security institutions, particularly the Nigeria Police Force and the Ministry of Interior.
Soyombo, who founded the Foundation for Investigative Journalism (FIJ), said over ₦1 billion allocated between 2016 and 2018 for the construction of police transit camps in Benue, Bauchi, Plateau, Katsina, and Kano States was diverted by senior police officers and officials of the ministry.
The camps, according to him, were approved to house policemen closer to violence-prone areas in the North to enable faster response to attacks. However, when FIJ visited the project sites in 2021, it found that little or nothing had been done on any of them.
“There will be no end to killings in Nigeria until grand corruption in security agencies is tackled,” Soyombo wrote.
In Falgore Forest, Kano, FIJ reporters found no trace of a transit camp, despite official records indicating that the project had been awarded and funded. Local officers told the team there was no plan or site for such a structure. The only police facility in the area was an old, dilapidated bungalow without a ceiling.
In Plateau State, FIJ’s field reporter spent an entire day searching for a ₦245 million project site. When he eventually found the location in Riyom, it contained only two uncompleted bungalows and a few mobile buildings. A real estate expert engaged by FIJ valued the entire structure at ₦9–₦10 million — a fraction of the reported cost.
Soyombo alleged that Joseph Egbunike, then the Commissioner of Police in charge of Budget and Finance, oversaw the disbursement of the funds. By the time FIJ began investigating the missing projects, Egbunike had risen to the rank of Deputy Inspector-General of Police (DIG).
He said FIJ’s investigation angered the police hierarchy, prompting attempts to intimidate him. “When I honoured their invitation in Abuja, which ended up a coordinated detention, the IPO told me point-blank: ‘We know the transit camps are not there, but why are you harassing Egbunike? If the ministry writes to say the project is done, should he not release money?’” Soyombo recounted.
He added that even during his interrogation by senior police officers, none denied FIJ’s findings. Instead, they appeared more concerned about protecting Egbunike, who had by then been appointed to chair the Abba Kyari–FBI investigation panel and was nearing retirement.
Soyombo lamented that corruption had become institutionalized within Nigeria’s security agencies, warning that unless such rot was uprooted, efforts to curb terrorism and banditry would remain futile.
“Whenever you read news of killings in Benue, Plateau, Bauchi, Kano and Katsina,” he wrote, “remember that more than ₦1 billion was released for positioning policemen for rapid response but some people in the Ministry of Interior and the police stole almost all of it.”
The FIJ report underscores growing concerns over accountability and transparency in Nigeria’s security spending as the country continues to grapple with worsening violence and insurgency in several northern states.
