November 3, 2025 | 10:00 am
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - At first, the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) appeared serious about handling the road construction graft case at the North Sumatra Public Works and Spatial Planning Office. Investigators divided the probe into three task forces, each led by a police officer with the rank of adjunct senior commissioner.
Members of these three teams had already followed several leads, including one pointing to four revisions of the 2025 North Sumatra Regional Budget (APBD) ordered by Governor Muhammad Bobby Afif Nasution. Bobby reallocated hundreds of billions of rupiah from other programs to increase funding for two road projects: Sipiongot-Border of Labuhanbatu and Hutaimbaru-Sipiongot, both located in North Padang Lawas Regency.
The problem was that, four months into the investigation, KPK investigators had yet to summon Bobby. This, despite the Medan Corruption Court ordering that he be called to testify as a witness in the trial of two defendants in the case. Still, the KPK refused. “Investigators have yet to find a link between the case and the governor,” KPK spokesman Budi Prasetyo told Tempo on Wednesday, October 29, 2025.
KPK investigators tell a different story. One of them told Tempo that the team had in fact planned to question Bobby. Examining him as a witness, the investigator said, would help clarify the motive behind his repeated budget reallocations. They had even prepared a formal summons for Bobby, but none of the three task force heads were willing to sign it.
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