Opposition parties and residents in Nigeria’s Borno State are calling for an independent investigation into an alleged ₦4 billion “phantom” railway project that is said to have appeared in the state’s 2025 budget implementation report. According to the reports, the project was listed as “100% completed,” prompting criticism and demands for accountability. The Borno State government says the entry resulted from an administrative error. Borno’s Commissioner for Information and Internal Security, Usman Tar, states that no rail project was awarded, funded, or executed in the Maiduguri Metropolitan Council or Jere Local Government Area during the fiscal year.
Opposition groups including the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) and Africa Democratic Congress (ADC) reject the explanation and argue that the size of the alleged figure makes the incident more than a clerical mistake. They call for transparency from anti-corruption agencies such as the EFCC and ICPC, questioning where the money linked to the project would have come from and why it entered official records. Residents also express skepticism about the credibility of the state’s expenditure figures and say the broader spending report may need re-evaluation if such an error can occur in a major public item.
