EXCLUSIVE: Fraud, Job Racketeering Scandal Rocks Nigeria’s Technical Education Board As Staff Accuse Bugaje Of Flouting Service Rules

The management of the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE), led by Professor Idris Bugaje, has been accused of involvement in financial fraud and large-scale job racketeering worth millions of naira.

Insiders at the agency told SaharaReporters that Bugaje recently carried out what they described as the unlawful recruitment of more than 50 staff members, along with the fraudulent promotion of employees still on probation.

According to the sources, during the 2025 senior staff promotion exercise, the Executive Secretary allegedly inserted the names of Dr. Zakari Abdullahi and Dr. Moses Yelleng into the list sent for ministerial approval.

“The duo was on probation, having been employed in March 2023 and fraudulently made Deputy Directors in January 2025, two months before the confirmation of their appointments and more than two years before they would be due for promotion to the rank, going by public service rules,” one of the sources said.

“While Dr Zakari never worked in public service, Dr Yelleng was dismissed for serious misconduct by the Kaduna State University.”

A source said, “His dismissal was however concealed at the point of recruitment with the aid of Prof Bugaje until it was discovered during an Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) probe of Prof Bugaje’s fraudulent withdrawal of two hundred million naira from the Board’s account to NBTE Consult Ltd account where he sits as Chairman and appointed his in-laws as Managing Director and General manager among other serial infractions.”

Documents obtained by SaharaReporters also revealed that another staff member, Dr. Hadiza, who was transferred to the Board from the National Examinations Council (NECO), was prematurely elevated to the rank of Deputy Director — in clear violation of regulations prohibiting promotion upon transfer of service.

“One Dr. Hadiza, who was brought to the Board on transfer of service from the National Examination Council (NECO) with neither the approval of the Governing Board nor the Hon. Minister of Education, was also prematurely promoted to the rank of Deputy Director against extant rule, which forbids promotion on transfer,” another source added.

“These officers were then posted to head divisions that were forcefully made vacant after occupants were transferred to redundancy.”

“It is unfortunate that these staff members, fresh as they were, have been placed over and above older staff,” the source lamented, pointing out that some of their more senior officers were “redeployed out of their positions and made redundant just for these officers to occupy their positions”.

The source added that staff members at the Board blame the Ministry of Education for failing to exercise proper oversight of the Executive Secretary, thereby enabling him to flout service rules with impunity and trample on their rights.

A source said, “He has rendered over 90 per cent of the staff redundant and works only with those he employed or brought on transfer of service, many of them illegally.

“Prof Bugaje was allowed to run NBTE like a Sole Administrator without adherence to due process. Hardly a week passes without people being employed in the Board either as freshers, or on transfer of service, sabbatical or contract appointments, in sharp contrast to the laid down regulation.

“Between September and October 2024, over 50 staff members were illegally recruited in connivance with the management of the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System (IPPIS), to upload them onto the government payroll systematically.

“NBTE payroll is increasing every month, rather than decreasing with the retirement of staff members.

“Out of the 55 names illegally recruited, a top person at IPPIS and some senior officials were given 15 slots in addition to financial inducement, while security operatives and other top presidency and ministry officials also had their relations employed under the illegal exercise. 

“Many of the staff members are placed under contract and thereafter systematically uploaded onto the IPPIS platform.”

A review of the payroll by SaharaReporters between August 2024 and July 2025 shows 25 new entries.

Sources note that under the recruitment procedures, Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) are required to obtain approvals from their Governing Board — or from the Honourable Minister in the absence of a board — as well as a waiver from the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation (OHCSF), clearance from the Federal Character Commission, and financial approval from the Budget Office of the Federation. 

According to sources, all these mandatory steps were bypassed.

Another officer at the Board questioned the rationale for the exercise, asking how an institution that claims to have gone digital — and has already rendered a large number of its personnel redundant — could still embark on recruitment, even under normal circumstances.

“Prof Bugaje told the Minister of Education that the number of staff in the Board was inadequate and sought approval to recruit, but the minister refused, and advised that he use resource persons to complement available staff for quality assurance visits,” a source said. 

“He has now gone behind the minister to seek a Head of Service waiver to employ.”

A further analysis of the documents by SaharaReporters confirmed the systematic increase in the number of staff on the payroll, particularly from February this year, while several names bear October 2024 as their dates of first appointment, proof that the Executive Secretary may have actually conducted illegal recruitments.

“He will go to Abuja and lie to the Hon Minister that the Board lacks staff to carry out quality assurance in institutions under its purview whereas, he rendered several of the staff redundant and works with a handful that he illegally recruited or brought under transfer of service, secondment or contract appointments, all in violation of extant regulations,” another source lamented.

A source said, “Officers in the Board who are afraid to openly complain about the developments in the Board appealed to the minister to look beyond the ‘deceitful reform’ by Prof Bugaje and save the Board and indeed the technical and vocational education and training sector from the excesses of the Executive Secretary who was dismissed by the Usmanu Danfodio University Centre for Renewable Energy and even barred from holding public office in a government white paper on the Presidential Visitation Panel to Federal Polytechnic Nasarawa where he once served as Rector in the early 2000.”

Repeated calls by SaharaReporters to Bugaje went unanswered. A text message sent to his phone had also not received a response as of the time of filing this report.