Former Governor of Kwara State, Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed and his Finance Commissioner, Ademola Banu on trial over mismanagement of funds
The immediate past Governor of Kwara State, Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed, and his Finance Commissioner, Ademola Banu were charged to court over alleged st3aling and mismanagement of public funds to the tune of N5.78billion on Wednesday, December 4, 2024, before Justice Mahmud Abdulgafar of the Kwara State High sitting in Ilorin.
The former governor and his finance commissioner among other things were accused to have diverted funds meant for the Kwara State Universal Basic Education Board, UBEC, as well as money meant to provide security and other infrastructural facilities for the people of the State, leading to their arraignment on October 21, 2024, by the Ilorin Zonal Directorate of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.
At the resumed hearing of the case on Wednesday, the EFCC presented its first witness, Prosecution Witness 1, PW1, Abubakar Hassan, an assistant director of finance, Universal Basic Education Commission, UBEC.
Hassan stated that the main objective of the UBEC when it was established in 2004 was to ensure that no Nigerian child is denied of basic education. He said basic education started from primary school to junior secondary school.
Stating the procedures for obtaining grants from the Commission, the witness said, “UBEC law provides that the Chairman of State Universal Basic Education Board, its Executive Secretary and the Director of Finance are signatories to Matching Grants Accounts. The Matching Grants Account is opened with any commercial bank or the Central Bank of Nigeria.”
However, he added that the State has to prepare action plans (budgets), defend the projects and get approval before it could access grants from UBEC.
Hassan disclosed, “The Commission made lodgment for 2013, 2014 and 2015. Kwara State got Matching Grant of about N2billion (Two Billion Naira Only) for 2013, N876million (Eight Hundred and Seventy-Six Million Naira Only) was released for 2014 while they got N982million (Nine Hundred and Eighty-Two Million Naira Only in 2015, totaling about N5billion”
He revealed that “Implementation of 2013 Action Plan had already commenced, contractors were already being mobilized to work at the site but surprisingly, during our project monitoring exercise we discovered that the monies meant for the project (2013) had been diverted by the Kwara SUBEB. We discovered that about N2billion was diverted.”
He said there were no activities for 2016, 2017 and 2018 due to the failure of the state to comply with its earlier recommendations about the diverted funds.
Justice Abdulgafar adjourned further hearing in the case till February 17, 2025.
Read also: The Tonto Dikeh foundation launches it’s Christmas initiative
