…N3bn expended on bread production, N700m for transportation of bread from Edo North to Benin

Details have emerged as to how the Edo State Deputy Governor, Philip Shaibu siphoned several billions of naira organizing the 2020 National Sports Festival hosted by the State in 2021, which is today being referred to as one of the most opaque and corrupt National Sports Festivals in the history of Nigeria.

Investigations revealed that the deputy governor, in order to actualise the fraud, expertly inflated the contract cost of each service for the hosting of the sports tournament, including feeding, hotel reservation, cleaning and other logistics, awarding same services to companies he had earlier set up through his wife and other cronies.

One of such contracts, a source close to the deputy governor said was the supply of bread for the feeding of the athletes during the National Sports Festival through which Shaibu siphoned over N3bn via a bakery set up in Edo North in his wife’s name.

The source who pleaded anonymity said the bread for the feeding of the athletes was produced and transported daily from Edo North to Benin where the athletes were camped, providing a fine platform for Shaibu to siphon billions of naira.

“One would wonder why the deputy governor will leave all the bakeries in Edo South and go to Edo North to produce ordinary bread to feed athletes for a competition being hosted in Benin. He didn’t even bother about the cost of transportation daily, and other logistics needed for the supply. He was blinded by his selfish gains of siphoning billions of naira through that channel.”

The source further revealed, “I have it on good authority that over N700 million was expended on the cost of transporting the bread alone to Benin City, which is not inclusive of the cost of production. That was exactly the pattern of financial impropriety that occurred during the sports festival championed by the deputy governor.”