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How ministries, cronies, and lawmakers turned fraud into governance
From Ghost Roads to Human Accomplices
For years, the people of Imo have been told of projects that never materialized: roads budgeted but unbuilt, hospitals allocated but unopened, water schemes launched but dry. These are called ghost projects. But ghosts do not loot treasuries. Real men and women do. Ministries approve them. Contractors — often shell firms — pocket the money. Legislators pass the budgets without scrutiny.
Hope Uzodinma presides over this machinery not as a governor but as the head of a cartel. And the cartel’s operations are visible in the books. BudgIT’s 2023 State of States Report shows Imo among the states with the highest capital expenditure pledges but one of the weakest in delivery. TrackaNG’s on-ground monitors list abandoned projects across the state — marked “completed” on paper but invisible in reality.
The Ministry of Works: Certifiers of Fiction
The Ministry of Works is where fraud becomes paperwork. Officials certify “mobilization” without stepping foot on project sites.
Take Ubowalla Road: ₦300 million was allocated in the 2022 budget for rehabilitation. By mid-year, not a grader or surveyor had arrived. Yet internal reports marked the project as “ongoing.” By December, it disappeared from quarterly trackers entirely.
This is not an isolated case. TrackaNG’s 2022 reports flagged 11 abandoned or “completed-on-paper” road projects across Imo, all bearing Works Ministry endorsements.
Sample of Imo Road Projects (TrackaNG, 2022)
| Project | Allocation (₦m) | Status | Notes |
| Ubowalla Road Rehabilitation | 300 | Abandoned | No mobilization |
| Rural Road, Mbaitoli | 185 | Abandoned | Grading never done |
| Road Works, Ohaji-Egbema | 210 | Ghosted | Reported “ongoing” |
| Orlu Township Road | 400 | Incomplete | Only 20% executed |
The Ministry of Works has become a certifier of fiction, stamping paperwork to make non-existent roads appear “done.”
Ministry of Finance: Banker of the Cartel
Fraud requires financing, and the Ministry of Finance provides it. It disburses funds without verifying progress. Mobilization payments — sometimes 100 percent upfront — are released before any site visit.
BudgIT notes that in 2022, Imo spent ₦93.5 billion on capital expenditure, more than 60 percent of total outlays. Yet communities report little to no infrastructure to show for it. In plain terms, billions left the treasury, but mud roads and broken clinics remained untouched.
Read also: Fraud By Design: Imo’s Ghost Roads Under Uzodinma
Imo State Expenditure, 2022 (BudgIT)
| Category | Allocation (₦bn) | Actual Spend (₦bn) | Delivery Evidence |
| Capital Projects | 120 | 93.5 | Weak — high ghost rate |
| Recurrent Costs | 95 | 90.1 | Salaries, admin |
| Total Budget | 215 | 183.6 | Only 50% visible impact |
The Finance Ministry is not a guardian of the purse but the cartel’s cashier, moving funds from treasury to phantom firms with no questions asked.
Procurement Board: The Rubber-Stamp Factory
Every fraudulent contract needs legitimacy, and the Bureau of Public Procurement provides it. Its mandate is to guarantee competitive bidding, but in Imo it has become a conveyor belt for cronies.
TrackaNG found that several projects were awarded to firms registered less than two years before contract approval — firms with no staff, no machinery, no history of execution. This pattern recurs in education and health allocations too.
In 2023, Imo budgeted ₦7.3 billion for “Rural Infrastructure Projects.” By July, the Procurement Board had cleared dozens of contracts under this heading. By September, Tracka monitors reported that less than 20 percent of these projects had any visible activity.
Crony Contractors: The Ghost Firms
The contractors are not builders; they are couriers of theft. Many exist only on paper. BudgIT’s procurement analysis shows repeated awards to firms sharing the same addresses or directors, a clear sign of political cronyism.
Pattern of Ghost Firms (BudgIT/Tracka Findings)
| Firm Profile | Red Flag |
| Registered < 1 year before contract | No capacity to execute |
| Shared addresses with other firms | Crony networks |
| No history of past projects | Phantom operators |
| Awarded multiple contracts at once | Cartel laundering |
These firms withdraw public funds, skim their profit, and recycle the rest into Uzodinma’s political machinery. They are not contractors; they are middlemen in a looting cartel.
House of Assembly: Complicity by Silence
The Imo House of Assembly has abandoned oversight. It passes bloated budgets without questioning inflated allocations. It ignores citizen complaints. It has never held a public hearing on abandoned projects.
NILDS research explains why: state assemblies depend on governors for allowances, contracts, and survival. In Imo, lawmakers traded watchdog duty for patronage. Their silence is not negligence; it is complicity. They are accessories to fraud, clapping for budgets they know will vanish.
Citizens’ Testimonies: Naming the Betrayal
The numbers tell one story, but the people tell another.
- “They told us this road was budgeted. We only hear about it on radio. Here, it is still mud,” — Farmer, Mbaitoli.
- “Children fall sick crossing the flooded paths. The government said boreholes were built. We still drink from streams,” — Teacher, Ohaji-Egbema.
- “I buried my daughter because an ambulance could not pass. They said the road was completed. Completed where?” — Mother, Ubowalla.
Tracka monitors confirm what citizens already know: the budgets are lies. The projects exist only on paper. The betrayal is daily, lived, and deadly.
The Call for Full Disclosure
If Uzodinma’s regime has nothing to hide, let it open the books.
- Publish every contract award in Imo from 2022 to 2025.
- Release names of all companies, their directors, and procurement details.
- Forensically audit Ministries of Works, Finance, and Procurement.
- Prosecute officials who signed false approvals.
- Empower citizens to track projects in real time.
Only transparency can exorcise the ghosts haunting Imo’s budgets.
From Ghosts to Faces
Fraud in Imo is not abstract. It has ministries that certify fiction, bureaucrats who bankroll theft, boards that rubber-stamp cronies, and lawmakers who nod through betrayal. And it has a governor — Hope Uzodinma — presiding over it all.
History will not record them as administrators. It will name them for what they are: looters of the future, accomplices in organized theft, guilty of bleeding a people dry.
The ghosts now have faces. And those faces are stained with betrayal.
Bibliography
The Eastern Updates (2025). Fraud By Design: Imo’s Ghost Roads Under Uzodinma.
https://theeasternupdates.com/2025/09/27/fraud-by-design-imos-ghost-roads-under-uzodinma/
The Eastern Updates (2025). Uzodinma’s ₦300m Fraud Buries Ubowalla In Mud.
https://theeasternupdates.com/2025/09/25/uzodinmas-%E2%82%A6300m-fraud-buries-ubowalla-in-mud/
BudgIT (2023). State of States Report.
TrackaNG. Project Tracking Database.
https://tracka.ng/
The Whistler (2020). Panel Uncovers N106bn Contract Fraud in Imo.
https://thewhistler.ng/panel-uncovers-n106bn-contract-fraud-in-imo/
Channels TV (2020). Imo Probe Panel Indicts Ex-Governor Okorocha Of N106bn Fraud Scandal.
https://www.channelstv.com/2020/10/06/imo-probe-panel-indicts-ex-governor-okorocha-of-n106bn-fraud-scandal/
247ureports (2024). Imo: Rtd. Major Gen. Embarrassed As Uzodimma Abandons Road Project.
https://247ureports.com/2024/04/imo-rtd-major-gen-embarrassed-as-uzodimma-abandons-road-project-initiated-prior-to-election/
National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS).
https://nilds.gov.ng/
Transparency International (2023). Corruption Perceptions Index.
https://www.transparency.org/en/cpi/2023
Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC).
