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Various arms and departments of the Edo State Government violated the state’s appropriation law by spending beyond approved budgetary sums, an official document shows.
A PREMIUM TIMES analysis of the fourth quarter 2025 Budget Performance Report (BPR) of the Edo State Government revealed a N14.15 billion extra-budgetary spending by the executive, legislature and judiciary, in what an anti-corruption group described as “fiscal failure.”
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From the governor’s office to the legislature and the judiciary, the report shows that many expenditures were made outside legislative approval for capital projects, overheads and personnel costs, thus raising questions about fiscal discipline, legislative oversight and the credibility of budget implementation under the Governor Monday Okpebholo administration.
Capital Projects: Oversight fails at the gate
The Edo State House of Assembly, constitutionally empowered to scrutinise public spending, features prominently in the breaches.
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The BPR shows that the construction of a new legislative building had no approved allocation in the revised 2025 budget, despite a provision of N100 million in the year’s initial budget. Yet, N20 million was spent on the project. This comes against a troubling backdrop of N900 million expended on the same project in 2024, according to the State’s 2024 audited financial report. In 2026, N250 million has also been approved for the project.
Across other MDAs, the pattern continues. Under the Rural Access and Agricultural Marketing Projects, N505 million was spent against an approved N500 million, the report showed.
Infrastructure development in Edo’s oil-producing areas exceeded its N15.195 billion approval by N800.39 million, while the Ministry of Works spent N640.01 million, overshooting its road construction budget of N600 million for “Textile Mill Road/ Iyoba Street/ Other Adjoining Roads/ Street, in Benin City” by N40.01 million.
The most striking deviation occurred at the Edo State Public Building and Maintenance Agency, where spending on renovation and maintenance of administrative buildings ballooned from an approved N11.7 billion to N14.14 billion, an excess of N2.44 billion.
The Ministry of Social Development followed closely, spending N450 million on renovating a children’s correctional centre despite an approved ceiling of N68 million, resulting in N382 million in arbitrary expenditure. Altogether, capital project overruns alone accounted for N3.7 billion.
Economic Classification: Small lines, big questions
Beyond projects, the BPR reveals spending tucked under economic classifications. Basic Education recorded N7.96 million in arbitrary expenses, covering welfare packages, publicity, refreshments, fuel, and travel, while Primary Healthcare posted N808,283 in extra-budgetary costs for consulting and medical expenses.
Though modest compared to the billions elsewhere, the figures revealed a pattern of weak adherence to approved limits even in socially sensitive sectors.
Billion-naira drift for running costs
The most pervasive disregard for legislative approval of spending occurred in overhead expenditures, where the executive and legislature posted some of the largest deviations.
According to the report, the Office of the Edo State Governor exceeded its revised budget by N3.64 billion, spending N13.72 billion against an approved N10.08 billion for the running cost of his office.
The Directorate of Government House and Protocol followed with N1.24 billion in extra spending, while the Edo State House of Assembly, which had an approved budget of N4.67 billion, spent N7.23 billion, with a 54.9 per cent budget over-performance and N2.56 billion in arbitrary expenses.
The judiciary was also involved in the extra-budgetary spending. The report recorded that the Edo State High Court of Justice exceeded its overhead ceiling by N1.17 billion, while the Edo State Multi-Door Courthouse posted one of the most alarming figures: N718.15 million spent outside its approved N60 million overhead budget.
Smaller but notable excesses were also recorded across MDAs, including the Ministry of Health, Environment and Sustainability, Environmental and Waste Management Board, John Odigie Oyegun Public Service Academy, and Bendel Insurance.
In total, overhead overruns accounted for N9.44 billion.
Payroll beyond approval
Extra-budgetary spending also crept into personnel costs in Edo.
The General Services Department under the Office of the Secretary to the State Government alone exceeded its personnel budget by N645.57 million. Significant overruns were also recorded at the Edo Sports Commission (N138.9 million), College of Nursing Sciences (N143.37 million) and the College of Education (N62.2 million). Cumulatively, personnel-related breaches totalled approximately N1 billion.
This will not be the first time the Edo State Government has been caught in the web of arbitrary expenditure.
A review of the fourth-quarter BPR for 2024 reveals the same pattern. N4.36 billion in extra-budgetary spending was identified across 26 MDAs in the total expenditure by administrative classification alone. Of this amount, the state assembly made an extra-budgetary expenditure of N2.84 billion, which is 65.1 per cent of the total.
Silence from those in charge
Efforts to obtain official explanations were unsuccessful. The Commissioner for Information in Edo State, Paul Ohonbamu, did not respond to calls or text messages seeking clarification on the spending overruns or why legislative approvals were not sought.
When PREMIUM TIMES contacted the Speaker of the Edo State House of Assembly, Blessing Agbebaku, he referred us to the House Majority Leader, Jonathan Ibhamawu. Mr Ibhamawu did not respond to calls and text messages seeking his comment.
CSO flags extra-budgetary spending as systemic breakdown
Policy Alert, a civil society organisation that promotes fiscal governance in Africa, says that extra-budgetary spending across all arms of government in Edo State suggests a systemic breakdown in budgetary control, where approvals are treated as flexible suggestions rather than binding legal limits.
Speaking with PREMIUM TIMES, Policy Alert’s Programme Officer on Governance Reforms and Anti-Corruption, Faith Paulinus, said the situation was alarming and needed urgent reform.
“This, in its entirety, is a fiscal failure and if unchecked undermines legislative authority, weakens fiscal discipline, distorts development priorities, and erodes public trust in the government,” Mr Paulinus said.
“For citizens already burdened by economic hardship, the stakes are high because every naira spent outside the budget is a naira diverted from planned development and from public trust. The Edo State House of Assembly must purge itself of this illegality and immediately commence an investigation into this,” he added.
Development deferred
The opportunity costs of diverting funds from other subheads to spend beyond the budget, especially for the governor’s office, the state legislature, and the judiciary, are stark.
The 2023 Nigerian Labour Force Survey Annual Report highlights why the Edo State Government needed to spend its budgeted funds on projects that would improve citizens’ lives.
The Survey shows that Edo ranks 14th lowest (including the FCT) in the employment-to-population ratio at 68.3 per cent, below the national average of 72.2 per cent.
The state also ranks 10th nationally, with 19.7 per cent of youths aged 15–24 not in education, employment or training — a measure the survey stated points to underutilised human capital.
In this context, every diverted naira carries social consequences, especially as extra-budgetary expenditures contrast sharply with projects that received no funding despite legislative approval.
In 2025, the government budgeted N163.67 million as counterpart funding for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) projects, N20 million for the Livestock Productivity and Resilience Support Project (World Bank-assisted), and N50 million for FGN/International Fund for Agricultural Development/Niger Delta Development programmes. According to the BPR, no funds were released for these development projects and programmes.
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The Ministry of Business and Trade was allocated N80 million in capital expenditure for employment-boosting initiatives, including mobile entrepreneurial development programmes with startup kits, micro-credit schemes with BOI and MSME initiatives. Yet, according to the BPR, only N1.99 million was released for printing business premises certificates.
Other employment-enhanced projects that were not funded included the establishment of a hatchery and provision of hatchery chemicals (N200 million); improved seed multiplication centre (N120 million); and On-farm adaptive research/greenhouse project (N150 million).
The Edo State Government’s decision to incur extra-budgetary costs on controversial items while underfunding key social projects suggests it is adopting the wrong priorities.
If this pattern of billions escaping legislative oversight continues, youth unemployment in Edo may remain high, agricultural expansion may stall, and entrepreneurship programmes may lie dormant.
