Some beneficiaries of the state government N1M empowerment are being forced to part with Money each as kickback to some Ministry officials.

It is not clear at the moment where the money is going to or those behind the N5000 kickback which sources say is illegal.

The operators of the illegal fee deviced a smart way of collecting it using people from each group of beneficiaries to collect and secretly remit to them making it difficult know those involved.

Some of the collectors opened a WhatsApp group where they told members that the money is a compulsory service charge or processing fee to the account unit of the Ministry of Empowerment and the office of the Secretary to the State Government that worked on the disbursement.

While many are willingly paying some have questioned the legality of the payment arguing that the state government must have mapped out money for such contingencies.

Meanwhile, those championing the illegal fee stand to make about N8m if out calculations are correct.

Unconfirmed reports say the state governor, Francis Nwifuru has so far approved over N1.6bn for disbursement to 1600 beneficiaries at N1m each.

This means that if each beneficiary parts with N5000, the total amount accruing to the collectors of the illegal fee will round up to N8m.

Efforts to speak with the Special Assistant on media to governor as at the time of filing this report proved abortive.

Happenings