On Monday, February 17, 2025, the trial of former Kwara State Governor, Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed, and his Commissioner for Finance, Ademola Banu, resumed at the Kwara State High Court in Ilorin. The case centers on allegations that the duo conspired to misappropriate N5.78 billion in funds from the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC).
According to the charges, the funds were earmarked for critical educational initiatives—including the payment of teachers’ salaries under the Kwara State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB), the development of basic infrastructure in primary and junior secondary schools, and the implementation of security measures across the state. The Ilorin Zonal Directorate of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) formally arraigned both defendants on October 21, 2024, although they have consistently maintained their innocence by pleading not guilty.
During Monday’s proceedings, the prosecution called its first witness, Abubakar Hassan, an Assistant Director of Finance at UBEC. Led by EFCC counsel Rotimi Jacobs, SAN, Hassan testified that 51 projects approved under the 2013 action plan were abandoned due to a lack of proper funding management. He revealed that the UBEC project monitoring committee discovered numerous projects were either left unexecuted or were prematurely abandoned—a situation that spanned all 16 Local Government Areas in Kwara State.
“My Lord, the Projects Monitoring Exercise conducted investigations and found that many projects were either unexecuted or abandoned. We wrote to the then-Kwara State Governor, Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed, in May 2018 to address these issues, but we received no response,” Hassan stated.
In addition to these findings, Hassan highlighted that on January 6, 2015, N1 billion was reportedly loaned from the 2013 UBEC Matching Grant Account with Skye Bank Plc for the payment of staff salaries and pensions. Addressing the handling of the 2014 and 2015 State Counterpart Funds, he alleged that the Kwara SUBEB had unlawfully withdrawn N1,829,054,054.06 from funds deposited on February 18, 2016—an act that, according to him, compromised the state’s eligibility to access the Federal Government’s UBEC Matching Grants.
Further complicating matters, Hassan testified that UBEC had formally requested documentary evidence concerning the Kwara State Government’s use of these funds. “We submitted documents showing the lodgment of funds to the Kwara SUBEB. The projects were categorized into three segments: early care education, primary school education, and junior secondary school education,” he explained.
Reiterating the gravity of the situation, Hassan noted that UBEC had reached out to Governor Ahmed in May 2018 to highlight the mismanagement of education funds. However, no response was forthcoming from the state government. “State Matching Grants are not permitted to be borrowed or utilized for any purpose outside the approved action plan. The objectives of UBEC were undermined due to these infractions and the failure to implement the action plan,” he asserted.
In light of the testimony presented, Justice Mahmud Abdulgafar adjourned the case until February 18, 2025, specifically to allow for the cross-examination of the first prosecution witness. The ongoing trial continues to draw significant attention as both sides prepare their arguments in what is being viewed as a landmark case for financial accountability in Kwara State.
