By Rita Enemuru, Reporting
RENOWNED investigative journalist, ‘Fisayo Soyombo, has said that Nigeria’s endless wave of killings will persist unless the government confronts deep-rooted corruption in its security institutions.
Writing on his Facebook page on Friday, Soyombo alleged that over N1 billion earmarked for the construction of police transit camps across five northern states — Benue, Bauchi, Plateau, Katsina, and Kano — had been embezzled by officials of the Ministry of Interior and senior police officers.
According to Soyombo, the projects, which were approved between 2016 and 2018 to enhance police response to violent attacks, were left largely abandoned when the Foundation for Investigative Journalism (FIJ) visited the sites in 2021.
“The transit camp project was approved due to increased killings in the North,” Soyombo wrote. “The camps were to house policemen closer to flashpoints as a way of facilitating faster response to attacks. But little or nothing was done.”
In Kano State, Soyombo revealed that FIJ found no trace of a police transit camp in Falgore Forest, a known security hotspot.
“The local police officers told us there was neither a site for the structure in the forest nor a plan for such,” he recounted. “The only police station in Falgore was an old bungalow without a ceiling.”
Similarly, in Plateau State, an FIJ field officer reportedly spent an entire day searching for a N245 million project in Riyom Local Government Area — only to find two uncompleted bungalows and a few mobile buildings.
“A real estate expert valued the project at ‘₦9 or N10 million’,” Soyombo wrote. “A N245 million project!”
He further alleged that Joseph Egbunike, then Commissioner of Police in charge of Budget and Finance, who later rose to become Deputy Inspector-General of Police, used his position and the office of the then Inspector-General of Police, Usman Baba, to intimidate FIJ following the exposé.
“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 noted that even senior officers who interrogated him did not dispute FIJ’s findings but appeared more concerned about Egbunike’s reputation and upcoming retirement.
“They wondered if we didn’t want the old man to retire in peace,” he said.
The journalist lamented that corruption had become institutionalised within Nigeria’s security sector, warning that unless it was tackled decisively, terrorism and violent crime would remain uncontrollable.
Fisayo Soyombo
“Corruption, graft, and avarice have become entrenched in our institutions,” he stated. “If left untamed in security institutions, we have no hope of curtailing terrorists to whom Nigerian lives have no value.”
He urged Nigerians never to forget that the funds meant to protect citizens were allegedly diverted for personal gain, linking the persistent killings in parts of the North to the failure of accountability in the system.
“Whenever you read news of killings in Benue, Plateau, Bauchi, Kano, and Katsina,” Soyombo concluded, “always remember that more than N1 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.”
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