Documented cases of fraud, corruption, and financial misconduct by Borno State government officials and agencies during the 2019–present term. Sources linked on each card.
4
Total cases
0
Convicted
1
Ongoing
0
Dismissed
Govt response:
resolvedresolved
Allegation
A payroll audit ordered by Governor Zulum found 22,556 ghost workers across 19 local government areas and public primary schools, with 14,762 fictitious LG staff and 7,794 people drawing teacher salaries without teaching, costing the state ₦420 million every month.
Outcome / Status
The state recovered ₦150 million in unclaimed funds in a single month of the verification exercise and moved to blacklist banks implicated in facilitating the fraudulent payments; the exercise was widely credited as a genuine anti-corruption measure by the administration rather than an offence committed by it.
Administration's response
Zulum publicly announced the findings, vowed to sanction those responsible, and directed that all government accounts at implicated banks be closed or terminated.
resolvedPursuing
Allegation
A follow-up verification committee found 21 health workers in different institutions holding fake certificates and a further 91 ghost workers on the health payroll, with about ₦23 million being wrongly spent every month on health-sector salaries.
Outcome / Status
Zulum demanded sanctions against those implicated following the committee's findings; a full public accounting of disciplinary or prosecutorial outcomes was not identified for this entry.
Administration's response
The government publicised the audit findings and directed sanctions against the implicated staff and health institutions.
Ongoingdisputed
Allegation
Media reports alleged that ₦4 billion was approved for a rail reconstruction project spanning Maiduguri Metropolitan Council and Jere Local Government Area, and that the state's 2025 Budget Implementation Report listed the project as 100% complete despite no visible work having been executed.
Outcome / Status
No independent audit or investigation outcome had been identified as of this update; the matter remains a public allegation rather than a resolved finding.
Administration's response
The Commissioner for Information and Internal Security, Prof. Usman A. Tar, stated in June 2026 that no rail construction project had in fact been awarded, funded, or executed by the government in the 2025 fiscal year, and characterised the project's inclusion as 100% complete in the budget report as an administrative error rather than a reflection of the true position.
resolvedresolved
Allegation
The EFCC alleged that Abdulsalam Mustapha Kachallah, a former chairman of the Borno State Rural Electrification Board and a member of the MEPP steering committee, used his position and relationships with NNPC Limited officials to engage in fraud, corruption, and money laundering connected to power-project contracts awarded in 2021.
Outcome / Status
The Federal High Court granted the EFCC's application for final forfeiture of a Hawker 800XP private jet linked to Kachallah in May 2026. This is a federal NNPC-contract case rather than an allegation against Governor Zulum's own cabinet, but it directly implicates a former state agency official in graft connected to Borno's power infrastructure.
Administration's response
No Borno State government response was identified for this entry, as the prosecuting party was the federal EFCC and the underlying contracts were awarded by NNPC Limited rather than the state government.