As public corruption under President Bola Tinubu intensifies, the administration has awarded a critical aviation infrastructure project to a company founded and promoted by a dubious Nigerian businessman who was last believed to have fled the United Kingdom after being caught with proceeds of illicit activities at London Heathrow Airport.

Aviation minister Festus Keyamo announced last week that a N21.68 billion contract had gone to Messrs NHD Interbiz Projects Ltd for the first phase of the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency headquarters in Abuja.

Two sources familiar with the deal told Peoples Gazette that Mr Keyamo, who started out as a rights activist and anti-graft prosecutor, deliberately shirked mentioning that the firm, as its initials hint, belongs to Nasiru Haladu Danu, an infamous public works contractor whose exploits during the previous President Muhammadu Buhari government drew public outrage.

The minister said the contract, expected to be completed in 30 months, would serve as a modern facility for air traffic management at the only airport serving the nation’s capital.

Officials said Mr Tinubu signed off on the contract, expecting its windfall to further serve to cushion his campaign war chest ahead of the 2027 general elections.

“The president is trying to warehouse a lot of money for his reelection campaign as possible,” an official said under anonymity to discuss a matter he had opposed internally. “We’ve warned that projects should not be going to shady people like Nasiru Danu, but he needs people like that to move public funds around.”

Mr Danu got the contract despite his tawdry background, raising questions about the quality of background checks conducted before Mr Keyamo made the announcement.  

Both men have previously denied being corrupt, and Mr Danu has sued for defamation over previous allegations against him.

Mr Danu, a politician of the ruling party, was arrested in 2019 at Heathrow Airport over an alleged passport scam and money laundering. Sahara Reporters said he was caught with a fake Malta passport and more than £200,000 cash.

In the same year, another business he owns, Casiva, was among the 15 firms awarded the 2019-2020 contracts to exchange crude oil for imported petroleum products by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation. His firm was also awarded a contract in 2016 to provide pipeline security and maintenance services along the Kaduna-Kano and Zaria-Gusau routes.

Mr Danu was being probed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission in 2021 over the alleged diversion of N51 billion meant for the improvement of the Nigeria Customs Service, in collaboration with some senior officials of the service.

Former EFCC chairman Abdulrasheed Bawa led the probe into Mr Danu’s scam. The EFCC investigation also implicated a former Minister of Water Resources, Suleiman Hussein Adamu, in whose personal account some of the fraudulent transactions were found. Messrs Danu and Adamu hail from Jigawa.

Following Mr Bawa’s assumption of office in 2021, Mr Danu fled to Dubai aboard a private jet to evade justice. Mr Bawa also investigated Mr Tinubu for asset fraud in 2020, years before he was removed from office as soon as Mr Tinubu assumed office in 2023.

In a March 5, 2021, report published by SaharaReporters, part of the N51 billion allegedly siphoned by Mr Danu and some top customs officials was allegedly transferred to a foundation owned by Zahra Buhari, the daughter of the late President Muhammadu Buhari. Mr Danu was a signatory to the foundation and has continued to parade himself publicly as a philanthropist.

A former comptroller general of the NCS, Hameed Ali, was also named in the ‘Revenue Assurance Fraud’.

Anti-corruption agencies EFCC and ICPC both declined to comment on the latest project awarded to Mr Danu when reached by The Gazette.

Checks by The Gazette showed that NHD Interbiz was incorporated in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, on November 28, 2007, with registration number 720228. The firm’s business address is listed as 11 Awka Street, Port Harcourt.

Efforts made by this newspaper to reach Mr Keyamo for comments concerning the aviation ministry’s facilitation of the contract for Mr Danu’s firm were futile as the minister did not respond to phone calls as of press time.

In June 2020, the Nigerian Young Professionals Forum petitioned the U.S. Congress, demanding an urgent probe of Mr Danu and top officials in Mr Buhari’s government at the time, including Isa Funtua, late Abba Kyari, Abubakar Malami, Mamman Daura, Lawan Daura, Babagana Kingibe and Godwin Emefiele.

All the officials strongly rejected corruption allegations, and only Mr Malami was recently charged after leading a major opposition bloc to deprive Mr Tinubu of a second presidential term.

Mr Tinubu’s government has been involved in controversies over the award of potentially fraudulent contracts to the president’s family members and friends.

In May 2024, former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar condemned Mr Tinubu for inflating the cost of the Lagos-Calabar coastal highway, which was awarded to a firm that listed his son, Seyi Tinubu, and his surrogates as board members of companies owned by Gilbert Chagoury, an associate of the president.

The former vice-president noted that Mr Tinubu’s son, Seyi, is a director on the board of CDK Integrated Industries, a subsidiary of the Chagoury Group, which manufactures ceramic tiles and sanitary towels.

After inking the N15 trillion deal for the Lagos-Calabar highway in 2024, Mr Tinubu secured additional N1.2 trillion loan through Deutsche Bank as part of the payout to his son and Mr Chagoury, his longstanding ally and ex-money laundering convict.

Prior to President Donald Trump’s threat to attack Nigeria over the alleged massacre of Christians, Mr Tinubu spent over $2.7 million hiring lobbyists in the United States to help convince lawmakers and policymakers that he carries acceptable personal probity to lead Nigeria.

Mr Tinubu engaged public relations experts, including David Spaulding of Lenape Legal, based in a sleepy Philadelphia suburb, to help his administration navigate Washington’s concerns about his unsavoury public profile.

Mr Tinubu has continued to award large contracts to his family and political cronies as widespread corruption and insecurity continued to plunge millions of Nigerians into poverty. Nigeria’s designation as the country with the largest number of people in poverty under President Buhari has worsened since Mr Tinubu assumed office in May 2023.

The president has maintained there is no wrongdoing, saying his administration has carefully awarded all contracts and introduced policies to improve the economic and security conditions of citizens.