Auditor-General: Sports Commission split N209.65m Ibadan stadium contract among three firms of one owner; 2026 Act gives stadia N10.71bn

One contract, one budget head, three companies, one phone number. The Auditor-General for the Federation's 2024 Annual Report on Non-compliance, Volume II, says on page 606 that the National Sports Commission took "the contract for the general maintenance of Obafemi Awolowo Stadium, Ibadan, for N209,652,537.74", which had "a single appropriation head (ERGP26191225)", and that it "was split and awarded as different contracts to three (3) companies". The auditors add that "the three (3) companies belong to the same person and have same phone number as contact number on all of their procurement documents revealing ownership by one individual or related entities." The finding is headed "Splitting of contract to circumvent procurement threshold".

Three years on, the same Commission's budget is far larger. The 2026 Appropriation Act, on page 1789, gives the National Sports Commission headquarters a total allocation of N216,124,968,852, of which N198,171,938,565 is capital. One of its projects, ERGP26230295, is "GENERAL UPGRADE/MAINTENANCE OF OTHER STADIA AND SPORTING INFRASTRUCTURES IN NIGERIA", marked ONGOING, at N10,712,000,000. That one line is 51.09 times the Ibadan contract the auditors queried.

Vero Record read the ten pages on the Commission in the Auditor-General's report, pages 604 to 613, which cover 1 January to 31 December 2023, and the Commission's pages in the 2026 Appropriation Act. The audit raises five issues. Their stated sums are N48,695,400.00, N209,652,537.74, N316,214,089.00, N39,872,159.20 and N56,255,212.69. Added together they come to N670,689,398.63. The issues are separate findings on separate payments, but the report does not itself give a total, and we cannot rule out that some payments are counted twice.

The audit quotes the rules it tested the stadium contract against. Section 20(2) of the Public Procurement Act 2007 makes the accounting officer responsible for "ensuring that no reduction of values or splitting of procurements is carried out such as to evade the use of the appropriate procurement method". Section 24(1) requires open competitive bidding unless the Act provides otherwise, and section 41(2) says quotations "shall be obtained from at least 3 unrelated contractors or suppliers." Split three ways, the contract averages N69,884,179.25 per company; the report does not give the three separate values or name the companies or their owner.

The Commission answered. Its management told the auditors that the works were "individually unique, technical and required expertise and timely completion in order to put the stadium into use for urgent sporting activities", namely the 2023 national league, so that funding three companies from one budget line "was inevitable". It said each company competed against two others and that "phone number is not a critical element in the evaluation criteria." The auditors recorded this response as "unsatisfactory" and said "the findings remain valid until the recommendations are implemented."

The auditors asked the Director-General to account to the Public Accounts Committees of the National Assembly for N209,652,537.74, "being payment made for split contract", to recover and remit the same sum to the Treasury, and otherwise to apply the sanctions for splitting of contracts and irregular payment in paragraphs 3116 and 3106 of the Financial Regulations 2009.

The largest of the five findings is not the stadium. Under Issue 3, on page 608, "the sum of N316,214,089.00" was "paid as claims" through "the accounts of some officers which were expected to be disbursed to others for various activities, in violation of e-payment policy", and "there was no documentary evidence of disbursement to the beneficiaries." Here the record supports the Commission in part: its management "duly acknowledged" the observation, said it had suspended the practice of routing payments through officers' personal accounts, directed that all staff be enrolled on the GIFMIS platform and begun an internal review to trace the disbursements. The auditors still rated the response unsatisfactory.

Issue 1, on page 604, concerns N48,695,400.00 paid for the zonal elimination and other events of the 2023 National Youth Games, held from 7 to 17 September 2023, for which evidence of utilisation such as invoices, receipts and stores receipt vouchers was "not made available for audit review." The Commission's reply lists hotel, catering, printing, car hire and specimen shipping receipts adding, in its own words, to "Total amount utilized N48,695,400.00". One of the listed receipts is dated "10/7/2025", nearly two years after the games.

Issue 4 records store items of N39,872,159.20 bought on ten paid vouchers with no stores receipt or issue vouchers and not taken on ledger charge. Issue 5 records N56,255,212.69 paid without relevant supporting documents, including for out of competition drug testing with no list of the athletes tested. The Commission's reply on Issue 5 splits the sum into N14,860,000.00 and N41,395,212.69, which add exactly to the audited N56,255,212.69, and points to appendices of receipts. The auditors found every one of the five responses unsatisfactory.

The documents establish what the auditors recorded about the Commission's 2023 books and what the National Assembly appropriated to it for 2026. They do not establish that any money was stolen or that the Ibadan works were not done, and no court has made any finding on these payments. The audit does not name the three companies or the person it says owns them, does not give the value of each part of the split contract, and does not say what threshold the split was meant to avoid. The 2026 Act does not say which stadia the N10,712,000,000 line will cover or whether Ibadan is one of them, and whether the Public Accounts Committees have heard these queries is not in either document.

We invite a response from the Director-General of the National Sports Commission, in particular on the names of the three companies that shared the Obafemi Awolowo Stadium contract, the value of each award, and the outcome of the internal review of the N316,214,089.00 paid through officers' accounts. Any response will be published in full.

What this rests on

AuGF 2024 Annual Report on Non-compliance Vol. II, National Sports Commission, Abuja, report pp.604-613 (PDF pp.169-178), period 1 Jan to 31 Dec 2023. Issue 1 (pp.604-606): N48,695,400.00. Issue 2 (pp.606-607): N209,652,537.74, single appropriation head ERGP26191225, three companies. Issue 3 (pp.607-609): N316,214,089.00. Issue 4 (pp.609-610): N39,872,159.20, ten paid vouchers. Issue 5 (pp.611-613): N56,255,212.69. Sum: 48,695,400.00 + 209,652,537.74 = 258,347,937.74; + 316,214,089.00 = 574,562,026.74; + 39,872,159.20 = 614,434,185.94; + 56,255,212.69 = 670,689,398.63. Issue 5 management split: 14,860,000.00 + 41,395,212.69 = 56,255,212.69 (matches). Average per company: 209,652,537.74 / 3 = 69,884,179.25 (rounded). 2026 Appropriation Act p.1789, 0513001001 National Sports Commission HQTRS: total overhead 17,953,030,287 = total recurrent; total capital 198,171,938,565; 17,953,030,287 + 198,171,938,565 = 216,124,968,852 = total allocation (matches). ERGP26230295 General upgrade/maintenance of other stadia and sporting infrastructures in Nigeria, ONGOING, 10,712,000,000. 10,712,000,000 / 209,652,537.74 = 51.09. Days from end of audit period 31 Dec 2023 to 24 Oct 2026: 366 (2024) + 365 (2025) + 297 = 1,028.

What this does not establish

The documents do not establish theft, diversion or any crime; no court has ruled on these payments, and the audit's listed risks (such as diversion of public funds) are risks, not findings. The audit does not name the three companies or their owner, does not give the value of each split award, and does not identify the procurement threshold. It does not say whether the Ibadan maintenance works were carried out. The five issue sums are added by us; the report gives no total and overlap cannot be fully excluded. The 10/7/2025 receipt date may be a typing error in the Commission's reply or in the report. The 2026 Act line does not name the stadia it covers. Whether the Public Accounts Committees have taken up these queries, or whether any money was recovered, is not in the documents. The cover photograph is titled 'Ibadan stadium' on Wikimedia Commons; we have not independently confirmed that it shows the Obafemi Awolowo Stadium.