The Foundation for Investigative Journalism (FIJ) has revealed that the 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 Kashim Shettima.
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.”
FIJ also looked into the legality of Katsalla receiving money into his personal account from the government.
However, according to 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 that the State House has erred in its dealings with the individual, and such dealing, according to the law, is deemed fraudulent”, FIJ stated.
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