This large amount was set aside for the purchase of SUVs and luxury cars for traditional rulers who live in the Ikeja Federal Constituency. Upon careful examination, the data shows that these transactions took place in August and December of 2023.

SaharaReporters has gathered that a member of the House of Representatives, Hon. James Faleke, who represents the Ikeja Federal constituency in Lagos state, utilised the Federal Cooperative College in Kaduna to buy cars for the traditional rulers in Ikeja that were valued at over N230 million.

A detailed review of the financial documents made accessible to the public via the Govspend portal has revealed that the Federal Cooperatives College in Kaduna has spent N230 million.

This large amount was set aside for the purchase of SUVs and luxury cars for traditional rulers who live in the Ikeja Federal Constituency. Upon careful examination, the data shows that these transactions took place in August and December of 2023.

Remarkably, on August 15, 2023, Joydrill Integrated Services Limited was given a large contract worth N108.6 million to supply these established leaders with automobiles and SUVs. Additionally, on August 16, 2023, a further payment of N8.5 million was made to Talu Tandu Nigeria Limited in order to secure the contract for the provision of SUVs and cars with the intention of strengthening the influence of traditional rulers in the Ikeja federal constituency.

Prior to this transaction, on December 16, 2023, a substantial sum of money—N5.8 million—was paid to Elon Construction Limited for the task of providing SUVs and cars to traditional rulers in the same Ikeja, Lagos State area.

With its headquarters located in Kaduna, the Federal Cooperative College—which oversees these transactions—has raised questions about the nature of the relationship between legislator James Faleke and Joydrill Integrated Services Limited, the company that receives the lucrative SUV supply contracts.

As the representative of the Ikeja Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives and the chair of the prestigious Senate Committee on Finance, Faleke plays two important and influential roles.

Fascinatingly, Faleke represents the same Ikeja Federal Constituency as the traditional rulers who profited from the provision of opulent SUVs.

Tracka, a well-known public contracts monitoring group, had already drawn attention to Faleke’s dubious awarding of a contract to Joydrill Integrated Services for the installation of solar lights in Ikeja before the filing of this report.

Tracka’s inquiry specifically showed that Faleke had misrepresented the contract as a personal donation and raised concerns about the fact that some of the installed solar lights were discovered to be non-functional.

Subsequent analysis has revealed an astonishing link between Honourable James Faleke’s constituency projects and Joydrill Integrated Services. In Faleke’s Ikeja Federal Constituency, the business that was previously involved in the contentious Ikeja solar light installation contract was also given the contract to deliver luxury SUVs to traditional rulers.

The Federal Cooperative College, Kaduna spokesperson, Ahmed Usman, claims that Faleke used the college’s name to carry out the SUV supply operation as a constituent initiative.

Concerns about Faleke’s usage of sham institutions for his own benefit are raised by this disclosure.

Yes, Honourable Faleke used the school to carry it out. He told SaharaReporters, “It was carried out as a constituency project.”

He added that the school is where the vehicle photos are kept.

Even though Faleke gave cars to respected traditional rulers in February 2024, which was widely reported, it is unclear where the money for these selfless deeds came from.

More specifically, it is still unclear if these are the identical cars that were allegedly bought for a whopping N230 million using the Federal Cooperative College in Kaduna as a middleman.

Festus Ogun, an attorney, informed SaharaReporters that Nigerian legislation permits legislators to carry out various constituency initiatives via various organisations. However, he pointed out that since SUVs for traditional rulers will not help the populace in any manner, they shouldn’t be considered constituency projects.

“My concern is that, should cars be considered constituency projects, then purchasing cars for traditional leaders would go against the whole foundation of these initiatives—benefiting the people. It’s a flagrant violation of the law,” he declared.

Segun Elemo, the Executive Director of Paradigm Leadership Initiative, pointed out that as legislators employ various government ministries, departments, and agencies to carry out their constituency initiatives, they might not be illegal if the vehicles are budgeted for.

But given that the populace is starving, he questioned the logic of traditional rulers purchasing cars.

He told SaharaReporters, “The issue at hand is however why he would buy vehicles with such money when people are hungry; it is a moral issue.”

SaharaReporters made efforts to contact Faleke for clarification regarding his role in contracts that were given to traditional council members in his constituency for the delivery of vehicles, but Faleke did not respond.

At the time of reporting, Faleke’s official phone number had not received any response to repeated messages. Additionally, because of their little web presence and lack of contact details, Joydrill Integrated Services, the contract beneficiary, could not be reached for comment.