TDNigeria has just lived through its most brazen act of collective public theft in modern history. Not a single minister acting alone. Not a shadowy contractor. Not an anonymous bureaucrat.
This was 31 elected governors — men sworn on oath to serve their people — sitting together, agreeing together, and systematically deducting public money from their states’ monthly federal allocations to fund one man’s re-election campaign.
Their names are known. Their states are known. The amount is known. The mechanism has been exposed. The former Finance Minister who authorised the deductions has already been removed.
The EFCC has made arrests. And not one of them — not the Presidency, not Governor Hope Uzodimma, not the APC secretariat — has issued a denial. This article names every one of them.
HOW IT WORKED
There are 31 APC governors. At the end of April 2026, they had reportedly pooled approximately ₦800 billion out of a projected ₦1 trillion war chest, intended to return President Tinubu to office in 2027.
The mathematics is straightforward: each state has averaged ₦26 billion in contributions thus far.
The governors had initially agreed to contribute to the presidential campaign through monthly deductions from their Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) allocations, channelled into an account managed under the Renewed Hope Ambassador (RHA) platform.
The RHA initiative was created to promote federal government policies ahead of the 2027 general election. Uzodimma was said to have obtained approval for the deductions through then Finance Minister Wale Edun.
According to multiple sources familiar with the matter, the Imo State governor also allegedly moved NLNG-linked funds into the Progressive Governors Forum (PGF) financial structure, where concerns later emerged over their utilisation and accounting.
“It was NLNG funds that were given to the Imo governor. This was partly why the finance minister, Wale Edun, was removed,” a source close to the PGF told SaharaReporters.
THE GENESIS
Trouble began when some governors demanded accountability for how the funds had been spent.
Uzodimma reportedly became evasive when asked to provide a breakdown, allegedly claiming the money had already been expended. The response triggered outrage among forum members, leading to a bitter split that factionalised the governors.
The dramatic sequence of events culminated when some members of the forum reportedly met at the Ogun State Governor’s Lodge in Abuja and announced Governor Peter Mbah of Enugu State as the new leader of the group, in what sources close to the forum described as an attempted leadership coup.
Sources familiar with the matter said about 20 APC governors attended the closed-door meeting, including governors from Ogun, Bayelsa and Enugu states.
The crisis reportedly escalated to the point that President Tinubu, who was on an official foreign trip to France, Kenya and Rwanda, was forced to intervene personally, brokering a fragile truce that reportedly required Uzodimma to refund significant portions of the disputed funds.
The matter then attracted forensic scrutiny from the EFCC, with questions allegedly raised over who authorised the transactions, managed the accounts and supervised the deployment of the funds.
This was not a miscommunication. This was not a misunderstanding.
This was a coordinated conspiracy — executed through the formal machinery of state government, authorised at ministerial level, warehoused by the chairman of the Progressive Governors Forum, and covered up the moment it became public.
THE PRINCIPALS
The ultimate beneficiary. The man in whose name ₦800 billion was taken from the Nigerian people. He was on foreign trips while the crisis erupted and personally intervened by telephone to protect Uzodimma’s position.
He did not order an investigation. He did not demand the return of the funds. He brokered a truce to contain the scandal. That is not the behaviour of a man who did not know.
The bag man. The architect. The custodian. Uzodimma controlled the accounts. He obtained ministerial authorisation for the monthly deductions. When his colleagues demanded a financial breakdown, he could not provide one.
He claimed the money was already spent. He could not say on what. Under his watch, NLNG funds were also allegedly funnelled into the same political structure. He remains in post, protected by presidential intervention.
Wale Edun authorised the deductions at source — the formal mechanism by which monthly FAAC disbursements to states were reduced before reaching state accounts, with the balance directed into RHA-linked structures.
He has since been removed. His removal is being described as connected to the exposure of this arrangement. He has not been charged. He should be.
THE GOVERNORS — ALL 31 STATES
These are the men who govern APC-controlled states. There are 31 of them, and they had reportedly at the end of April 2026 pooled about ₦800 billion, at an average of ₦26 billion per state.
Some accused Uzodimma of misapplying the funds, while others expressed confidence in his leadership. About 18 of the APC governors followed up with a vote of confidence in Uzodimma.
Which means all 31 were in the arrangement. The argument was not about whether the money should have been taken. The argument was about where it went after it was taken.
Every governor listed below was a member of the Progressive Governors Forum that agreed to the deductions.
Every one of them received FAAC allocations from which these deductions were made. The public money of their state’s people was touched.
NORTH WEST
• Dikko Umaru Radda — Katsina State
• Nasir Idris — Kebbi State (notably moved the motion of confidence in Uzodimma)
• Umar Namadi — Jigawa State
• Uba Sani — Kaduna State
• Abba Kabir Yusuf — Kano State (newest APC recruit, defected February 2026)
NORTH EAST
• Babagana Zulum — Borno State
• Muhammad Inuwa Yahaya — Gombe State
• Mai Mala Buni — Yobe State
• Agbu Kefas — Taraba State (defected from PDP, January 2026)
NORTH CENTRAL
• Abdullahi Sule — Nasarawa State
• Mohammed Umar Bago — Niger State
• AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq — Kwara State
• Ahmed Usman Ododo — Kogi State
• Hyacinth Alia — Benue State
• Caleb Mutfwang — Plateau State
SOUTH WEST
• Babajide Sanwo-Olu — Lagos State
• Dapo Abiodun — Ogun State (the coup meeting was held at his Abuja lodge)
• Biodun Oyebanji — Ekiti State
• Lucky Aiyedatiwa — Ondo State
SOUTH EAST
• Hope Uzodimma — Imo State (bag man, PGF Chairman)
• Francis Nwifuru — Ebonyi State
• Peter Mbah — Enugu State (tipped as Uzodimma’s replacement)
SOUTH SOUTH
• Douye Diri — Bayelsa State (attended the coup meeting)
• Monday Okpebholo — Edo State
• Bassey Otu — Cross River State
• Sheriff Oborevwori — Delta State (defected from PDP, among first)
• Siminalayi Fubara — Rivers State
• Umo Eno — Akwa Ibom State
RECENTLY DEFECTED / ALIGNED
• Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri — Adamawa State (aligned with Tinubu camp)
Every one of these men received a FAAC allocation. Every one of these men was part of a forum that agreed to the deductions.
Every one of the people they govern — the nurses, the teachers, the market traders, the unemployed graduates, the rural poor — was robbed.
WHAT THE MONEY WAS TAKEN FROM
To understand the scale of this crime, you must understand what FAAC money is.
It is not discretionary political money. It is not surplus. It is the constitutionally mandated revenue share that funds state government operations — teacher salaries, hospital supplies, road maintenance, security, local government services.
It is the monthly lifeline that keeps 36 states functioning.
In 2024, the Federation Account Allocation Committee distributed ₦28.78 trillion to the three tiers of government, representing a 79 per cent increase from the previous year — driven by the removal of fuel subsidies and adjustments in exchange rate policies.
Nigerians were told this windfall would transform their lives.
Instead, many state governors reverted to familiar patterns of waste and self-indulgence, lavishing public funds on fleets of luxury SUVs, needless travel, grandiose government buildings, and headline-grabbing projects that do little to alleviate the daily struggles of ordinary Nigerians.
And now we know some of what was not being spent on the people was being deposited into re-election accounts.
THE EFCC IS ALREADY MOVING
This is not merely a political scandal. It is a criminal matter.
The matter has attracted forensic scrutiny from the EFCC, with questions allegedly raised over who authorised the transactions, managed the accounts and supervised the deployment of the funds.
The EFCC has arrested the Director-General of the Nigerian Energy Commission in connection with the ₦701 billion probe that overlaps with this same financial network.
The trail leads upward. Every naira that moved through those accounts left a digital record. Bank transfers do not disappear. FAAC deduction ledgers are auditable.
The Renewed Hope Ambassador and Renewed Hope Network accounts can be traced, frozen and forensically examined.
International investigators are watching this story. The FBI, the UK Serious Fraud Office, the EFCC, INTERPOL — they all read Nigerian newspapers. They all have existing files touching the Tinubu network.
This scandal does not exist in isolation. It connects to a pattern of financial conduct that goes back decades and that multiple jurisdictions are already examining.
THE SILENCE THAT CONFIRMS EVERYTHING
As of press time, neither the Presidency, Governor Hope Uzodimma, nor the national secretariat of the APC has issued a formal statement refuting the multi-billion naira allegations.
The APC South East chapter attempted a defence — arguing the figure was “unrealistic” because it would mean each governor contributed ₦26 billion. The party described the allegation as “laughable.”
But ₦26 billion per governor, from states receiving hundreds of billions in monthly FAAC allocations, is not laughable. It is entirely plausible. It is, in fact, precisely what the mathematics of this scandal produces.
When your only defence is that the number seems too large, and you cannot deny that a fund existed, that governors met to discuss it, that a Finance Minister authorised deductions, and that the President flew home from France to manage the fallout — you have no defence at all.
A MESSAGE TO THE GOVERNORS
You thought this was Nigeria as it has always been. You thought the information would be contained. You thought the noise would fade. You thought Tinubu would protect you, as he protected Uzodimma.
You miscalculated.
The people of Katsina know their FAAC allocation was touched. The people of Kwara know. The people of Borno, of Gombe, of Bayelsa, of Cross River, of Lagos — they all know now.
And they are connecting this knowledge to the hospitals with no drugs, the schools with no teachers, the roads with no asphalt, the minimum wage that was never reviewed.
You took their money. You took it in the name of keeping power. You took it while telling them there was no money for relief.
You took it while fuel costs were destroying household budgets. You took it while children were dropping out of school because parents could not afford the fees.
The international accountability architecture is no longer an abstraction. It is operational. Formal submissions referencing this scandal are being prepared for relevant international bodies.
Names travel across borders faster than aircraft now. Accounts can be frozen before you know a request has been made.
Every one of you listed in this article should understand: the reckoning has already begun. The question is not whether you will be held accountable. The question is by which jurisdiction, on which timeline, and in what form.
The Nigerian people have endured. They have absorbed shock after shock after shock. They were told to be patient while their money was taken to buy the election of the man who was taking it.
That patience has a limit. And this is it.
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Kio Amachree is President of Worldview International, a Stockholm-based civic accountability and diaspora engagement platform focused on Nigerian governance.
