A high-stakes political showdown is brewing in Kebbi State, where the African Democratic Congress (ADC) is demanding a full accounting of over ₦627 billion in state revenue — and the ruling APC government is firing back, insisting there’s no missing money at all.
The Allegation
The ADC’s Kebbi State Campaign Council says its figure of ₦627.14 billion — covering revenue that flowed to the state between May 2023 and October 2025 — isn’t speculation but a number pulled directly from official sources: the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation, the National Bureau of Statistics, NEITI, and the World Bank.
Bello Abdullahi, the council’s Director of Strategic Communications, says the government has yet to produce what actually matters: total receipts, a spending breakdown, audited figures, or procurement records. Listing finished projects, he argues, isn’t the same as opening the books.
Among the specific line items under scrutiny are roughly ₦1 billion in vehicle maintenance costs and about ₦4.6 billion spent on local travel and transportation — expenditures the ADC wants explained in detail, along with verifiable proof of delivery for other big-ticket allocations across agriculture, transport, education, and health.
The Government’s Defense
Kebbi’s government says the opposition is confusing budget projections with actual cash in hand. Ibrahim Abubakar Jombali, Special Adviser to Governor Nasir Idris, put it plainly: a budget is a plan, not a bank statement — and a revenue shortfall isn’t the same as theft.
By the government’s numbers, Kebbi pulled in just over ₦172 billion from the Federation Account Allocation Committee — about 82.6% of its ₦209.25 billion target — while internally generated revenue also came up short. In response, spending was scaled back: total expenditure landed near ₦240 billion, of which more than ₦152 billion went to capital projects.
The most contested figure is the state’s Capital Development Fund, projected at ₦276.27 billion but realizing only ₦47.45 billion — a gap of over ₦228 billion that officials insist reflects revenue that never materialized, not funds that vanished. Total revenue including the opening balance came to roughly ₦275.39 billion, against total expenditure of about ₦239.77 billion, with the capital budget itself revised down from ₦451.01 billion to ₦442.38 billion.
Yahaya Sarki, the governor’s media adviser, challenged the ADC to get specific: name a contract, produce a document, point to actual evidence of waste — rather than leaning on broad claims.
No Ground Given
The ADC isn’t backing down. Abdullahi insists a party press release doesn’t substitute for a financial statement, and is now calling on the State House of Assembly, the Accountant-General, the Auditor-General, and procurement watchdogs to step in and release the records directly.
A Bigger Political Fight
The financial dispute is quickly becoming a proxy war ahead of the 2027 elections. Former Attorney-General Abubakar Malami — now aligned with the ADC — is central to the fight, and the APC has seized on a separate, unrelated forfeiture case involving properties linked to Malami and his family to question whether he should face the same accountability standard he’s demanding of the state government.
With both camps digging in and no independent audit yet on the table, Kebbi’s ₦627 billion question looks set to remain a flashpoint well into election season.
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