President Bola Tinubu is scheduled to commission eight main projects in Akwa Ibom State on Friday, however questions surrounding billions of naira allotted to the projects and the federal government’s compliance with public procurement legal guidelines have solid a shadow over the inaugurations.
The projects embrace the Airport-Okopedi Road, Ring Road 3, AKWA-GIS Office Complex, Command and Control Centre, ARISE Palm Resort, the International Terminal Building, International Airport Hospital and Ibom Aviation Village.
The presidency announced on Thursday that Mr Tinubu would go to Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State capital, on Friday to commission the projects executed by the administration of Governor Umo Eno earlier than attending an All Progressives Congress political rally in close by Rivers State.
An examination of successive budget documents by PREMIUM TIMES exhibits that lots of the projects attracted substantial allocations between 2023 and 2026, but their unique contract sums, contractors’ particulars and procurement information should not publicly accessible.
The absence of those information raises questions on compliance with the Akwa Ibom State Public Procurement Law, which requires the federal government to publish procurement info on its digital portal.
Billions in successive budgets
A overview of the state authorities’s price range paperwork exhibits that the Airport-Okopedi Road, a 14.5-kilometre highway connecting communities in Nsit Atai and Okobo Local Government Areas, has attracted repeated budgetary provisions.
The venture, which dates again to the administration of former Governor Godswill Akpabio and continued beneath his successor, Udom Emmanuel, has skilled implementation challenges, together with the revocation of some contracts alongside the route.
Under the present administration, the primary part, captured in the budgets because the re-award of the contract for the dualisation of the 14.5-kilometre Airport-Okopedi Road, obtained N3 billion in the 2023 revised price range, N8.5 billion in 2024, N23 billion in 2025 and one other N15 billion in the 2026 price range.
These provisions quantity to N49.5 billion over the 4 price range cycles.
Another main highway venture scheduled for inauguration is the dualisation of the 7.868-kilometre Ring Road 3, which connects Idoro Road to Ikot Ekpene Road by way of Uyo and Ibiono Ibom.
The venture, dealt with by Hensek Services, attracted N21 billion in the 2024 price range, N15 billion in 2025 and N13 billion in 2026, bringing its cumulative budgetary provisions to N49 billion.
Despite the size of the allocations, PREMIUM TIMES couldn’t discover the unique contract sum or receive publicly accessible procurement information detailing the award and implementation of the venture.
The ARISE Palm Resort, one other main tourism venture initiated by the administration and listed for inauguration, additionally obtained substantial allocations.
The state budgeted N29.99 billion for the development of the resort in 2025 and one other N10 billion in 2026.
An extra N5 billion was supplied for erosion-control services across the resort and related to Udo Inwang Street, close to the resort.
The resort is a part of Governor Eno’s tourism growth agenda, which has concerned main public investments in leisure and hospitality infrastructure.
PREMIUM TIMES had beforehand reported considerations in regards to the absence of procurement information and contract particulars for the administration’s Ibom ARISE Park and Resort venture.
The newspaper discovered that the federal government had not printed the contract sum, procurement documentation or bidding information for the venture on the state procurement portal.
The International Terminal Building on the Victor Attah International Airport has additionally attracted substantial allocations beneath the Eno administration.
The state supplied N21.1 billion in the 2023 revised price range, N14.35 billion in 2024, N16.2 billion in 2025 and N8 billion in the 2026 price range for the venture.
The allocations complete N59.65 billion throughout the 4 price range cycles.
The terminal, nevertheless, presents a separate accountability query as a result of it was already commissioned by former Senate President Bukola Saraki on 26 May 2023, shortly earlier than Mr Emmanuel left workplace.
In May 2025, PREMIUM TIMES reported that Governor Eno mentioned he inherited the terminal at virtually 40 per cent completion, regardless of its commissioning beneath his predecessor.
The newspaper additionally discovered that the state continued to allocate cash to the ability after its inauguration.
The newest resolution to embrace the terminal in the listing of projects scheduled for commissioning by Mr Tinubu raises additional questions in regards to the extent of labor accomplished after its preliminary inauguration and the extra public funds dedicated to it.
Airport services, different projects
Other projects scheduled for inauguration on the Victor Attah International Airport embrace the International Airport Hospital and Ibom Aviation Village.
The hospital venture is captured in the state budgets because the remodelling and improve of the Victor Attah International Airport Clinic, together with the development of name rooms.
The authorities allotted N2 billion for the remodelling and improve in 2025, alongside N700 million for the acquisition of apparatus.
The Ibom Aviation Village, captured in the price range because the Aviation Housing Estate, obtained N6.62 billion in 2025 and N5.98 billion in 2026.
The state additionally made provisions for the Command and Control Centre, together with N500 million for equipping and furnishing the ability in 2025 and one other N1 billion in 2026.
However, PREMIUM TIMES couldn’t establish particular budgetary allocations for the AKWA-GIS Office Complex in the budgets reviewed beneath the Eno administration.
For these projects, the federal government has but to make publicly accessible particulars displaying their unique contract sums, subsequent variations, contractors and procurement processes.
Procurement legislation questions
The absence of publicly accessible contract info is noteworthy as a result of the Akwa Ibom State Public Procurement Law gives for transparency in the award and implementation of public contracts.
Section 61(5) of the legislation mandates the Public Procurement Regulatory Agency and different procuring entities to promptly and routinely publish procurement info on the state’s digital portal.
The provision is meant to make sure that members of the general public can entry details about authorities procurement and look at how public sources are dedicated.
However, searches by PREMIUM TIMES on the state’s procurement portal didn’t reveal the contract particulars of the projects scheduled for inauguration.
The newspaper additionally discovered no publicly accessible proof establishing that the contracts had been subjected to open aggressive bidding, as supplied for beneath the state’s procurement framework, or that any relevant exceptions had been correctly invoked.
Without the disclosure of contract sums, bidding information and award particulars, it’s tough for the general public to on their very own decide whether or not the projects had been awarded in accordance with the legislation, whether or not the prices present worth for cash and the way a lot the federal government has really spent on them.
The considerations come towards the backdrop of earlier PREMIUM TIMES investigations into procurement transparency and fiscal accountability beneath Mr Eno.
Four days in the past, the newspaper reported that the state authorities had obtained no less than N3.218trillion in public income inside 41 months of the governor’s administration however had stopped publishing detailed capital expenditure information, making it tough to monitor spending on main projects.
Other studies by the newspaper have documented the federal government’s failure to disclose procurement particulars for main public investments, together with its N42 billion compressed pure fuel bus project and the N15.47 billion rehabilitation of the State House of Assembly complex.
Government retains mum
PREMIUM TIMES despatched a media enquiry to the Akwa Ibom State Commissioner for Information, Aniekan Umanah, searching for clarification on the projects and the absence of their procurement information.
The newspaper requested the federal government to present the whole price of every venture, together with the unique contract sums and any subsequent variations or revised prices.
It additionally requested particulars of the procurement strategies used in awarding the contracts and whether or not the processes complied with the procedures and approvals prescribed by the state’s public procurement legislation.
Additionally, the newspaper requested why the contract awards, sums, contractors and different related procurement information had not been printed on the state’s procurement portal, as required by legislation.
Calls to Mr Umanah didn’t join. He additionally didn’t reply to textual content messages, WhatsApp messages or a message despatched by way of Facebook Messenger.
The commissioner had not responded to the enquiries as of the time of this report.
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