Umahi's ministry called the Tungan Maje-Jere road Tinubu opened at his Kaduna rally 81km. Its May release put the same stretch at 108km, completed

At President Bola Tinubu's campaign flag-off in Kaduna on Saturday 24 October, the State House says the Minister of Works, David Umahi, spoke "during the virtual commissioning of Lot 1 (81 km) of the Abuja-Kaduna-Zaria-Kano Dual Carriageway". On 1 May his own ministry had published a release describing "the completed 108-kilometre stretch extending from Tungan-Maje in the Federal Capital Territory to Jere in Kaduna State", a segment it said "has been fully delivered". Vero Record set the ministry's releases on the road against what was said at the rally.

Umahi presented his road figures at the rally, where he also serves as deputy director-general for infrastructure, mobilisation and sensitisation of the APC presidential campaign council, according to Politics Digest. A ministry statement issued on Sunday 25 October by its press director, Mohammed Ahmed, and reported by Punch, Politics Digest and TheFact, said the government had completed 348 kilometres of inherited and newly initiated road projects, with 4,084 kilometres ongoing and 1,811 kilometres partially completed. Politics Digest reported that the interventions listed "included the 118-kilometre Lot 1 of the expressway, 30 kilometres in Kano State and the 81-kilometre Tungan Maje-Jere alignment, which he said had been commissioned".

The State House release on the rally, signed by the President's adviser Bayo Onanuga, says Tinubu "inaugurated the 81-kilometre section of the Kaduna-Abuja highway with a symbolic ribbon-cutting". It names the commissioned work "Lot 1 (81 km)". On the State House's record, and in the ministry's description of the Tungan Maje-Jere alignment, the road opened on the campaign platform was 81 kilometres long.

A year earlier Umahi gave Lot 1 a different length. After a meeting with the Kaduna governor, Uba Sani, and the contractor, Infiouest International Limited, on 10 October 2025, the ministry quoted him: "Lot 1 is 118 kilometres, costing N252,000,000,000.00 (Two Hundred and Fifty Two Billion Naira), and lot 2 is 164 kilometres, costing N502,000,000,000.00 (Five Hundred and Two Billion)". The two lots add up to 282 kilometres and N754 billion, the total he gave for completing the road from Abuja to Kano.

The May release is about a media tour of the corridor on Thursday 30 April. It says the ministry's engineers' representative, Chukwuma Kalu, "guided the inspection team across the completed 108-kilometre stretch extending from Tungan-Maje in the Federal Capital Territory to Jere in Kaduna State" and "disclosed that while this segment has been fully delivered, work on Section II is progressing steadily and is projected for completion by November".

Read together, the records give the same project several lengths: 118 kilometres for Lot 1 in Umahi's words of October 2025 and, as reported, in the ministry's statement of 25 October 2026; 81 kilometres for Lot 1 in the State House release of 24 October; 108 kilometres for the completed Tungan Maje-Jere stretch in the ministry's May release; and 81 kilometres for the same Tungan Maje-Jere stretch in the ministry's rally statement. For the same two end points, the May figure and the rally figure differ by 27 kilometres; the ministry's Lot 1 figure and the State House's differ by 37 kilometres. The stretch was described as fully delivered 177 days before it was commissioned in Kaduna.

One possible explanation is in Umahi's own words. Describing Lot 2 in October 2025, he said it was "82 kilometres by 2 that is 164 kilometres", counting each side of the dual carriageway separately. In September 2025 the ministry's engineer described Section One as covering "40.5km (dual carriage on concrete pavement)", of which "22km have been completed on both sides". Twice 40.5 is 81. The releases do not say whether the 81 kilometres commissioned at the rally is 40.5 kilometres of dual road counted twice or 81 kilometres from end to end, and they do not say how the 108 and 118 kilometre figures were measured.

The ministry's other releases add further lengths. On 8 November 2025 the Minister of State for Works, Bello Goronyo, said Section I (Abuja-Kaduna) spans 144 kilometres and that "about 26 kilometres of continuous rigid concrete pavement and 15 kilometres of binder and wearing course have been completed". On 7 October 2026 Umahi said all the outstanding sections were complete "except the Jere-Kaduna portion", and described the whole expressway as 375 kilometres, a figure that reads as road length rather than the length of each carriageway.

The record supports the ministry on the central point. By its own releases the Abuja end of the road, from Tungan Maje to Jere, was finished before the rally, and the State House and the ministry used the same 81-kilometre figure for what was commissioned on 24 October. Counting each carriageway of a dual road separately is a recognised engineering convention, and nothing in these documents suggests the road was not built.

What the documents leave open is what the numbers on the campaign platform measure. The ministry's statement of 25 October gives 348 kilometres of completed roads without a list of projects or lengths, and does not say whether it counts road length or carriageway length. On Umahi's own arithmetic for Lot 2, one stretch of dual road can be described as 82 kilometres or as 164 kilometres.

The documents do not establish how long the road commissioned on 24 October is on the ground, how much of it was built before the current contract, or what Lot 1 now covers. Nothing here suggests any misuse of funds or any offence by anyone.

We invite a response from David Umahi, the Minister of Works, and from the ministry's press director, Mohammed Ahmed, on how long the Tungan Maje-Jere stretch is and how the 81, 108 and 118 kilometre figures were measured; from Bayo Onanuga on the source of the State House's "Lot 1 (81 km)"; and from Infiouest International Limited on the length of road it has completed under Lot 1. We will publish any reply in full.

What this rests on

Grade A, retrieved and read in full (copies saved in src): (1) State House release, 24 October 2026, signed Bayo Onanuga, "President Tinubu inaugurates 81km Abuja-Kaduna highway at campaign flag-off": Tinubu "inaugurated the 81-kilometre section of the Kaduna-Abuja highway with a symbolic ribbon-cutting"; Umahi spoke "during the virtual commissioning of Lot 1 (81 km) of the Abuja-Kaduna-Zaria-Kano Dual Carriageway". (2) Federal Ministry of Works release dated 1 May 2026 (fmw.gov.ng/read/3393), media tour "on Thursday" (30 April 2026): "the completed 108-kilometre stretch extending from Tungan-Maje in the Federal Capital Territory to Jere in Kaduna State"; "this segment has been fully delivered"; Section II "projected for completion by November". (3) Ministry release on the meeting of 10 October 2025 (fmw.gov.ng/read/3343): "Lot 1 is 118 kilometres, costing N252,000,000,000.00"; "lot 2 which is basically in Kaduna, 82 kilometres by 2 that is 164 kilometres costing Federal Government N502,000,000,000.00"; total "N754,000,000,000.00"; contractor Infiouest International Limited. (4) Ministry release of 20 September 2025 (fmw.gov.ng/read/3337): "Section One, which covers 40.5km (dual carriage on concrete pavement)"; "22km have been completed on both sides". (5) Ministry release on the inspection of 8 November 2025 (fmw.gov.ng/read/3354): Section I (Abuja-Kaduna) "spanning 144 kilometres"; "about 26 kilometres of continuous rigid concrete pavement and 15 kilometres of binder and wearing course have been completed". (6) Ministry release on the press conference of 7 October 2026 (fmw.gov.ng/read/3431): "all the sections completed except the Jere-Kaduna portion advancing steadily"; "the 375-kilometre Expressway". Grade B (attributed, press reports of the ministry statement of Sunday 25 October 2026 issued by Mohammed Ahmed; the statement itself was not found on fmw.gov.ng, whose latest release is dated 10 October): 348 km completed, 4,084 km ongoing, 1,811 km partially completed (Punch, Politics Digest, TheFact); "the 118-kilometre Lot 1 of the expressway, 30 kilometres in Kano State and the 81-kilometre Tungan Maje-Jere alignment, which he said had been commissioned" and Umahi's campaign council role (Politics Digest). Arithmetic: 108 - 81 = 27 km; 118 - 81 = 37 km; 118 - 108 = 10 km; 82 x 2 = 164 km; 40.5 x 2 = 81 km; Lot 1 + Lot 2 = 118 + 164 = 282 km; N252bn + N502bn = N754bn, matching the stated total; 348 + 4,084 + 1,811 = 6,243 km. Days: 30 April 2026 to 24 October 2026 = 0 (rest of April) + 31 (May) + 30 (June) + 31 (July) + 31 (August) + 30 (September) + 24 (October) = 177 days. 30 April 2026 was a Thursday; 24 October 2026 a Saturday; 25 October 2026 a Sunday.

What this does not establish

The length of the commissioned road on the ground, end to end; whether the 81 km, 108 km and 118 km figures use road length or carriageway length; whether Lot 1 was re-scoped between October 2025 and October 2026; whether Section One (40.5 km) in September 2025 is the same stretch as Tungan Maje-Jere; how much of the stretch was built before the Infiouest contract; the text of the ministry statement of 25 October 2026, which Vero Record read only as reported by three outlets; what the 348 km of completed roads consists of and how it was counted. No contract, engineering drawing or payment record was obtained. Nothing here establishes misuse of funds or any offence.