By Onoja Baba
A company owned by Audu Jeremiah Okpanachi, who is affiliated with the Department of Management Sciences at the Nigerian Defence Academy’s Postgraduate School (Ribadu Campus) in Kaduna, secured multiple high-value contracts for the evacuation of solid and liquid waste from the Federal Medical Centre (now Federal Teaching Hospital) in Lokoja, Kogi State, between 2018 and 2019. Records show the firm, Ochija & Co Ltd (RC 270266), received repeated payments for what appears to be routine sanitation services at the federal health facility, raising serious questions about conflict of interest and potential violations of Nigeria’s Code of Conduct for Public Officers.
Ochija & Co Ltd, incorporated on April 23, 1995, as a private company limited by shares with its address at 3 Old Kano Road, Zaria, Kaduna State, lists Jeremiah Audu Okpanachi and Jeremiah Audu Sunday Okpanachi as directors and major shareholders. The company’s primary activity is listed as general contracting, importing, exporting, and merchant business. Corporate records indicate the firm is now classified as inactive as of mid-2024, yet it was actively awarded and paid for federal contracts years earlier. Okpanachi’s affiliation with the NDA Postgraduate School places him in the category of a public officer, where engaging in private business that supplies goods or services to other government agencies is strictly regulated.
Payment records from the Federal Medical Centre, Kogi, reveal a pattern of frequent transactions specifically for “evacuation of solid/liquid waste”, commonly referred to in local parlance as “pheuses” or sewage management. Between October 2018 and November 2019, Ochija & Co Ltd received at least 12 separate payments for this service, with each backed by distinct payment voucher numbers, suggesting they were treated as individual transactions rather than a single ongoing contract.
The amounts were remarkably consistent, hovering around ₦6.2 million per payment:
October 8, 2018: ₦6,219,540 (voucher 1000515358-3)
November 2, 2018: ₦6,201,540 (voucher 1000523143-1)
November 29, 2018: ₦6,201,540 (voucher 1000531448-1)
December 22, 2018: ₦6,201,540 (voucher 1000540240-1)
February 2, 2019: ₦6,201,540 (voucher 1000549925-1)
April 4, 2019: ₦6,201,540 (voucher 1000567037-1)
May 1, 2019: ₦6,197,940 (voucher 1000575831-1)
July 3, 2019: ₦6,197,940 (voucher 1000596394-1)
August 1, 2019: ₦6,197,940 (voucher 1000602663-1)
August 30, 2019: ₦6,197,940 (voucher 1000608023-1)
October 8, 2019: ₦6,197,940 (voucher 1000616840-1)
November 4, 2019: ₦6,197,940 (voucher 1000624960-1)
These 12 payments alone total approximately ₦74,414,340 for waste evacuation over roughly 14 months. In 2018, four payments amounted to about ₦24.82 million; in 2019, eight payments totaled roughly ₦49.59 million. Additional sanitation-related contracts to the same company during the same period included fumigation of the hospital’s internal and external environment (e.g., ₦20.5 million in April 2019 for arrears covering 2017–2018 and ₦5.1–5.1 million in mid-2019) and external cleaning services (₦15.15 million in September 2019 for March–August 2019 arrears). Each carried unique payment references and payer codes (primarily 0521027031 or 521027031), indicating they were processed as discrete awards despite covering recurring services at the same facility.
The scale of spending stands in stark contrast to the dire conditions at the Federal Teaching Hospital Lokoja. A March 2025 investigative series by PUNCH Healthwise described the facility, upgraded from Federal Medical Centre, as a “death house” plagued by obsolete equipment, crumbling infrastructure, severe shortages of basic medical supplies (such as dialysis tubings and bicarbonate), overworked staff, and frequent medical errors leading to avoidable deaths. Doctors reportedly struggle daily with outdated facilities, while the hospital lacks modern working tools and adequate manpower. Broader environmental challenges in Lokoja, including poor solid waste management, flooding, and indiscriminate sewage disposal, have been documented in academic studies and local reports, yet the hospital continued to allocate tens of millions to a single contractor for waste evacuation during this earlier period without apparent improvements in overall sanitation or infrastructure.
Legal experts note that Okpanachi’s dual role appears to breach core provisions of the 1999 Constitution. The Fifth Schedule (Code of Conduct for Public Officers) explicitly prohibits public officers from engaging in any private business or trade that could conflict with their official duties or involve direct or indirect contracting with government agencies. Paragraph 1 bars arbitrary acts prejudicial to others, while the broader code, enforced by the Code of Conduct Bureau, forbids full-time public servants from running companies that supply services to the federal government.
This is reinforced by the Public Service Rules, which restrict civil servants and academic staff in public institutions from private practice except in limited cases such as farming, and by procurement guidelines under the Public Procurement Act that demand transparency and competitive bidding to avoid favouritism. Such arrangements can also attract scrutiny from the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) for abuse of office.