THE House of Representatives has issued a February 11 ultimatum to chairmen of the six area councils in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) to appear before its Committee on Public Accounts over alleged financial irregularities exceeding N100 billion.
In a statement on Friday, the chairman of the House Committee on Public Accounts, Bamidele Salam, said the committee had invited the leadership of the area councils to respond to the audit queries, but they failed to honour the summons.
Salam said the council chairmen have now been given a final opportunity to appear before the committee on February 11, warning that failure to comply would force the House to invoke its constitutional powers to order their arrest.
He revealed that an audit report by the Auditor-General of the Federation for the year ended December 31, 2021, indicted Abaji, Abuja Municipal, Bwari, Gwagwalada, Kuje and Kwali area councils for widespread financial mismanagement.
According to the report, the councils recorded outstanding liabilities of N7.65 billion as of December 2021. These include unremitted pension deductions, Pay-As-You-Earn (PAYE), Value Added Tax (VAT), withholding taxes, unpaid capital project obligations and other statutory payments owed to the Nigeria Revenue Service, FCT Inland Revenue Service, pension fund administrators and contractors.
A breakdown of the liabilities shows that Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC) owed N2.19 billion, Bwari N1.49 billion, Kwali N1.46 billion, Gwagwalada N1.01 billion, Kuje N892.2 million and Abaji N593.8 million.
The audit also faulted the councils for poor asset management, noting that fixed asset registers were either not maintained or not updated. In the Gwagwalada Area Council alone, non-current assets valued at N336 million were not properly documented, raising concerns about possible losses. Similar weaknesses were observed across the other councils.
In addition, the report raised concerns over the total expenditure of N24.87 billion incurred by the councils in 2021 on personnel costs, overheads and capital projects. Although total spending rose by 89 per cent, an increase of N11.7 billion compared with 2020, about 37 per cent of funds reportedly allocated to capital projects could not be properly accounted for.
Spending figures show that AMAC spent N5.03 billion, Gwagwalada N4.66 billion, Kuje N3.85 billion, Kwali N3.84 billion, Bwari N3.74 billion and Abaji N3.71 billion.
Further audit findings for 2022 and parts of 2023 revealed continued violations of financial regulations, including understatement of internally generated revenue, unauthorised disposal of assets, non-disclosure of statutory revenue and failure to remit withholding taxes.
The ICIR reported last year that primary school teachers in the FCT were on strike for over three months after walking out on March 24, 2025, in protest over the failure of area council chairmen to implement the new N70,000 national minimum wage and pay owed arrears.
In July, the FCT minister, Nyesom Wike, approved the use of 10 per cent of the FCT council Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) to help offset some teacher dues in a bid to resolve the strike.
The strike was eventually suspended after more than three months when some demands were partially met and agreements reached.
Nanji is an investigative journalist with the ICIR. She has years of experience in reporting and broadcasting human angle stories, gender inequalities, minority stories, and human rights issues. She has documented sexual war crimes in armed conflict, sex for grades in Nigerian Universities, harmful traditional practices and human trafficking.