Parliamentary corruption, minister’s certificate forgery, other top PREMIUM TIMES investigations in 2025

As we continue into the first month of 2026, we reflect on some of the most consequential investigations published by PREMIUM TIMES in 2025.

Over the past 12 months, this newspaper has produced a wide range of investigations, exclusives and special reports in the public interest. These stories cut across governance, corruption, accountability, insecurity, the environment, health, and human rights.

Many of the stories garnered both local and international attention and, in many cases, triggered reforms and public debate.

In this report, we bring back some of these investigations. For those who followed the reports as they unfolded, this is an opportunity to reflect on the events. For readers who may not have had the opportunity to review some of our most impactful works during the year, we have republished links to these pieces for your reading pleasure.

At the start of the year, Nigeria was already grappling with multiple challenges, but corruption remained pervasive. One of our earliest investigations exposed how some lawmakers in the Nigerian National Assembly set up a bribery scheme targeting federal universities and other tertiary institutions. The lawmakers allegedly used intimidation and threats to force university heads to pay N8 million each to secure approval of their allocations in the 2025 budget. 

Initially, the lawmakers denied extorting universities. However, some senators later confirmed to PREMIUM TIMES how the money was shared. Members of the Senate Committee on Tertiary Institutions and TETFUND told this newspaper they received $1,000 each as “appreciation money,” claiming they were unaware of its source until our report exposed the scheme.

Shortly after that investigation, we moved to Rivers State to document how big businesses and individuals are depleting Nigeria’s protected forests. Existing data from Global Forest Watch showed that about 11 per cent of tree cover in Oban and other parts of Akamkpa was lost between 2001 and 2022. Our findings revealed that widespread logging by individuals, small groups and larger business interests is driving the rapid disappearance of these forests.

PREMIUM TIMES also exclusively revealed how former United States President Joe Biden and top American officials pressured Nigeria to release Binance executive Tigran Gambaryan, who was standing trial. Our report detailed how officials from both the executive and legislative arms of the US government persistently pressured Nigerian authorities through letters, frantic phone calls and multiple virtual meetings. Following diplomatic negotiations, Nigeria dropped the charges against Mr Gambaryan.

Mr Gambaryan, Binance Holdings Limited’s head of financial crime compliance, and Nadeem Anjarwalla, the company’s Africa regional manager, were detained on 26 February 2024 for allegedly failing to cooperate with investigations into how crypto exchange firms, including Binance, were sabotaging Nigeria’s economy and causing substantial financial losses.

We also reported extensively on Nigeria’s worsening health crisis. The near collapse of healthcare services has prompted many Nigerians to seek treatment in neighbouring countries, with residents of some Ogun State communities increasingly crossing into the Benin Republic for medical care. Also, Nigerian women are bearing the weight of infertility stigma, just as conflict-driven displacement has worsened child malnutrition in Benue State.

Another investigation showed how reforestation efforts under Africa’s ambitious Great Green Wall project are being hindered by terrorist activities. Areas linked to the project have become banditry hotspots, with staff kidnapped while carrying out reforestation work. The flash flooding that hit Niger state in May was unprecedented in the town’s history, but our investigations show that deforestation aided the Mokwa floods that killed over 200 people. 

Insecurity also worsened in parts of north-central Nigeria. Terror attacks that long plagued the northwest and northeast spread to Kwara State, with reports of explosives and frequent kidnappings for ransom. We reported how farmers abandoned their lands, and communities fled as criminals turned residents into commodities in a brutal new trade. Across Kwara South, communities now live under siege from armed groups and violent herders.

Our investigations documented how oil spills continue to devastate farmlands, homes and livelihoods in the Niger Delta. Beyond oil pollution, we also revealed how agrochemicals are silently endangering lives and ecosystems in Nigerian communities.

In collaboration with our international partners,  PREMIUM TIMES exposed a shady Russian recruitment scheme that drew in young Africans from at least 15 countries. Many recruits were promised good salaries and skills training, but later found themselves trapped in harsh conditions, facing deductions, strict surveillance, dangerous work environments and difficulties returning home.

In Kano, we uncovered corruption involving former governor Abdullahi Ganduje, revealing how the state government’s 20 per cent stake in Dala Inland Dry Port Nigeria Limited was secretly transferred to his children and associates. Our investigation also showed that contracts worth more than N4 billion were awarded for infrastructure on the project. 

Like Ganduje, the current administration is also enmeshed in corruption. Our investigations revealed how the Director-General of Protocol to the Kano State Governor, Abdullahi Rogo, masterminded the diversion and laundering of billions of naira belonging to the Kano State Government, funnelling the funds through suspicious companies, bureau de change operators, and personal accounts.

Journalists continued to work under increasing threats. A subnational assessment of press freedom published in July ranked Imo State as the worst place to be a journalist in Nigeria. Despite the risks, our reporters went on the ground to document firsthand the hostile environment journalists face in the state.

Our pursuit of accountability also led us to Enugu, where PREMIUM TIMES exposed certificate forgery by a federal cabinet member, Minister of Science and Technology Uche Nnaji. Our findings showed that Mr Nnaji forged his Bachelor of Science certificate, having not completed his studies from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, and also forged a National Youth Service Corps certificate.

Our two-part investigation, published in October and November, showed how deadly attacks at sea push Nigeria’s fishers and traders to the brink while the government looks away and brandishes what we established to be false data about the attacks.

We also exposed how battery recycling factories are polluting the environment and poisoning Nigerians. In Ogijo, Ogun State, factories once hailed as symbols of economic opportunity have become sources of environmental and public health catastrophe, contaminating soil and water. Our investigation, in conjunction with our international partners, found that weak regulatory oversight is leaving communities exposed to slow, preventable deaths.

As the economy undergoes a wave of reforms, our investigation reveals that extortion on Nigeria’s highways is driving up food prices nationwide. Across the country, extortion has become as predictable as potholes. From Kano to Lagos, Enugu to Port Harcourt, and Ibadan to Ilorin, truck drivers told us they pay large, routine sums at checkpoints operated by multiple security agencies. These costs are ultimately passed on to consumers. As food prices continue to rise, our findings show that food inflation is deepening the child malnutrition crisis in northern Nigeria.