Tobic General Merchants, an enterprise where high-ranking Lagos State parliamentarian Tobun Abiodun holds a 90 percent equity stake, clinched two lucrative state government contracts valued at N114.85 million over a six-week stretch in late 2025. Both awarding authorities—the Ministry of Commerce, Cooperatives, Trade and Investment, alongside the Ministry of Works and Infrastructure—fall squarely within the scope of his current or former legislative supervision.
Official procurement logs show that the first agreement, cleared in November 2025 by the commerce ministry, allocated N99.98 million toward restoring deteriorating factory bays and an entrance post at the Matori 1 Small Scale Industrial Estate situated in Mushin. Just five weeks later, in December, the works ministry approved a supplementary N14.87 million contract for roofing upgrades on government quarters located in Ogba Phase II.
These transactions spotlight substantial ethical and governance concerns owing to Abiodun’s oversight clout. A seasoned lawmaker who has served in the state legislature since 2011, Abiodun presently leads the House Committee on Industry, Commerce and Cooperatives. This role empowers him to scrutinize the commerce ministry’s budgeting, fiscal discipline, and contracting exercises. In addition, he spent eight years—from 2015 to 2023—presiding over the works and infrastructure committee, giving him deep historical and institutional proximity to the second awarding body.
Federal documentation from the Corporate Affairs Commission demonstrates that Abiodun’s corporate footprint is direct and substantial. The Beneficial Ownership Register indicates he holds an interest of at least 90 percent in Tobic General Merchants, standing as its sole declared beneficial controller. The entity was established only in 2024, raising eyebrows in regulatory circles. Standard public tendering conventions generally expect participating vendors to prove their technical and financial reliability through three years of audited operational history, yet Abiodun’s enterprise secured over N114 million in taxpayer-funded projects within roughly twelve months of incorporation.
Such arrangements run contrary to the core tenets of the Lagos State Public Procurement Law of 2021 and complementary regulatory guidelines. Under these statutes, exerting unauthorized leverage, exploiting official openings for individual gain, or competing where an ethical conflict is apparent are classified as statutory breaches. Clear-cut agency standards mandate that public officials must entirely withdraw from bidding procedures that could deliver pecuniary benefits to themselves, backed by written justification to appropriate authorities.
Efforts to obtain Abiodun’s perspective were unsuccessful. Multiple telephone calls, text correspondence, and instant messaging inquiries dispatched to his verified lines received no response, while general directory addresses linked to the Lagos State House of Assembly bounced as non-functional.
