Documents Reveal Sokoto Lawmakers Spent N4.6billion On Vehicle Purchases Amid Widespread Insecurity

Between January and September 2025, the state spent N1 billion on thirty vehicles for members of the House of Assembly and management staff, budget performance documents reviewed by SaharaReporters showed.

A SaharaReporters' review of Sokoto State’s budget performance documents has shown that a sum of N4.6 billion was spent on luxury vehicles by the state lawmakers amid widespread insecurity and poverty.

Between January and September 2025, the state spent N1 billion on thirty vehicles for members of the House of Assembly and management staff, budget performance documents reviewed by SaharaReporters showed.

Review of the 2024 Accountant-General’s financial statement for the state also shows that a sum of N3.6 billion was spent on the purchase of motor vehicles by the lawmakers in the 2024 fiscal year.

This means that a total of N4.6 billion was spent on the purchase of vehicles by the Sokoto State House of Assembly between January 2024 and September 2025.

Previously, a SaharaReporters review of budget performance documents showed that a total sum of N15.520 billion was budgeted by Sokoto State for the purchase of vehicles for House of Assembly members, executive council members, and special advisers in the 2024 fiscal year.

Review of the budget shows that the purchase of 30 vehicles for honourable members and management staff was estimated at N3.1 billion.

Also, the purchase of motor vehicles for the speaker and deputy speaker’s fleet was budgeted to gulp N460 million.

Another sum of N500 million was budgeted for twenty vehicles for government functionaries.

Thirty executive council members were also meant to get Prado Jeeps worth N8.6 billion. This would mean that each lawmaker was expected to get a Prado Jeep worth N289 million.

Already, N4.795 billion was spent on purchasing Prado Jeeps in the first six months of the year, out of the budgeted N8.6 billion.

Also provided for was the purchase of 40 Changan vehicles for special advisers, estimated at N2.8 billion. N2.5 billion was spent in the first six months of the year for this purpose.

This means that in the first six months of 2024, a total of N7.2 billion had already been spent on vehicles for political appointees —broken into N2.5 billion for Changan vehicles for special advisers and N4.795 billion for Prado Jeeps for executive council members.

Figures from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) Multidimensional Poverty Index paint a stark picture.

Sokoto is officially Nigeria’s poorest state, with 5.81 million people classified as poor—the highest population of poor people in the country.

According to the data, 60 percent of households in the state lack access to sanitary facilities, while 49 percent do not have access to clean drinking water.

The education sector is similarly distressed, with 52 percent of school-age children currently out of school.

Civil society actors say these numbers highlight a deep mismatch between the state’s spending behaviour and the urgent, life-altering needs of its citizens.