Keyamo gives N21.68bn NAMA deal to firm linked to Nasiru Danu

When Aviation Minister Festus Keyamo stood at Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport last week to break ground on a new N21.68 billion headquarters for the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), he made no mention of who was actually getting the money.

According to a report by Peoples Gazette, the contract went to a company called Messrs NHD Interbiz Projects Ltd. The initials, as anyone paying attention would notice, spell out a name: Nasiru Haladu Danu.

Two sources familiar with the deal told Peoples Gazette that Keyamo deliberately omitted that detail. What he said instead was that the contractor would be held to “the highest standards of quality and timelines,” that the project complied strictly with the Public Procurement Act 2007 after what he described as a transparent and competitive tender process, and that the 30-month job would give NAMA a modern facility worthy of managing Nigeria’s sovereign airspace.

What he did not say is that Danu, a 53-year-old contractor and ruling party politician, was arrested at London’s Heathrow Airport in 2019 over an alleged passport scam and money laundering. Sahara Reporters reported at the time that he was caught carrying a fake Malta passport and more than 200,000 pounds in cash. He has denied wrongdoing and has sued for defamation over previous allegations against him.

The arrest was just one entry in a long record that raises serious questions about how Danu’s firm survived whatever background checks preceded this contract award.

In 2021, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission under then-chairman Abdulrasheed Bawa was investigating Danu over the alleged diversion of N51 billion meant for improvements to the Nigeria Customs Service. The probe also implicated a former minister of water resources, Suleiman Hussein Adamu, in whose personal account investigators found some of the alleged transactions. Both Danu and Adamu are from Jigawa State.

When Bawa’s investigation intensified, Danu fled to Dubai aboard a private jet to evade questioning. He has not faced a concluded prosecution. Bawa, who notably also investigated President Bola Tinubu for asset fraud in 2020, was removed from the EFCC chairmanship shortly after Tinubu assumed office in May 2023.

A 2021 report by SaharaReporters alleged that part of the N51 billion siphoned in the customs fraud was transferred to a foundation linked to Zahra Buhari, the daughter of former President Muhammadu Buhari, and that Danu was a signatory to that foundation. Those named in the report, including former customs comptroller general Hameed Ali, rejected the allegations.

Danu’s business reach has been wide. In 2019, a company he owns called Casiva was among 15 firms awarded contracts to exchange crude oil for imported petroleum products by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation. Three years earlier, he received a contract to provide pipeline security and maintenance services along the Kaduna-Kano and Zaria-Gusau routes.

In June 2020, the Nigerian Young Professionals Forum petitioned the United States Congress demanding an urgent investigation into Danu and top officials in Buhari’s government, including Isa Funtua, the late Abba Kyari, Abubakar Malami, Mamman Daura, Lawan Daura, Babagana Kingibe and Godwin Emefiele. All the named officials rejected the allegations.

Corporate records checked by Peoples Gazette show that NHD Interbiz Projects was incorporated in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, on Nov. 28, 2007, with registration number 720228. Its listed business address is 11 Awka Street, Port Harcourt.

An official who said he had internally opposed the contract spoke on condition of anonymity. “The president is trying to warehouse a lot of money for his reelection campaign,” the official said. “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.”

According to this official, Tinubu signed off personally on the contract, with 2027 campaign financing in mind. The president’s office did not respond to questions about that account.

The EFCC and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission both declined to comment when contacted by Peoples Gazette about the latest contract.

Keyamo did not respond to phone calls seeking comment.

The NAMA project is not an isolated episode. Tinubu’s administration has faced persistent accusations of directing major public contracts toward family members and political allies. In 2024, former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar publicly accused the president of inflating the cost of the Lagos-Calabar coastal highway, which was awarded to a firm that listed Tinubu’s son, Seyi, and associates of his longstanding ally Gilbert Chagoury as board members. Tinubu subsequently secured an additional N1.2 trillion loan through Deutsche Bank for the same highway project.

Keyamo, for his part, came to government with a reputation built on years of anti-corruption activism and work as a prosecutor. That history makes his silence on who sits behind the NHD initials all the more striking.