Despite widespread economic hardship and soaring inflation across the country, the Federal Government has allocated N5bn towards the renovation of the vice president’s official residence in Lagos State.
In the N2.17tn supplementary budget passed in November 2023, the Federal Government had budgeted N3bn for the renovation of the vice president’s official residence in Lagos State and another N2.5bn for the renovation of his official residence located within the Aso Rock Villa in Abuja.
However, checks by our correspondent using GovSpend, a civic tech platform that tracks and analyses the Federal Government’s spending, showed that a total of N5,034,077,063 was spent in May and September this year for the renovation of the VP’s Lagos residence.
A monthly breakdown of the amount showed that on May 31, 2024, the State House paid N2,827,119,051 to an engineering firm, Denderi Investment Limited, for the renovation of the official quarters of the vice president in Lagos.
Similarly, on September 5, 2024, the Office of the Chief of Staff to the President paid the same firm N726,748,686 for additional renovation work on the VP’s Lagos home.
On the same day, the Chief of Staff’s office paid N1,480,209,326 to the same firm for Phase 2 renovations of the VP’s Lagos residence.
Recall that in November 2023, the Federal Capital Territory Administration said it would spend N15bn to build a “befitting” official residence for the Vice President in Abuja.
The FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, disclosed this while appearing before the House of Representatives committee to defend the FCT’s N61.5bn 2023 supplementary budget.
