Stephen Olufemi Oni, Ilorin

The trial of the immediate past Governor of Kwara State, Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed, and his Finance Commissioner, Ademola Banu, over alleged stealing and mismanagement of public funds to the tune of N5.78bn got underway on Wednesday before Justice Mahmud Abdulgafar of the Kwara State High siting in Ilorin.

The former Governor and his finance commissioner, among other things, were alleged to have conspired to steal money meant for payment of salaries of teachers working with 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, though the duo
pleaded not guilty to the charges. Consequently, they were admitted to bail, and the case was adjourned for trial.

At the resumed hearing of the case on Wednesday, the EFCC presented its first witness, PW1, Abubakar Hassan, an assistant director of finance, Universal Basic Education Commission, UBEC.

While being led in evidence by counsel to the EFCC, Rotimi Jacobs, SAN, Hassan told the court that the Kwara State Government misappropriated about N5bn meant to execute projects at primary and junior secondary schools between 2013 and 2015, when Abdulfatah Ahmed was governor.

He said: “The Matching Grant Funds from the Universal Basic Education Commission is meant to provide certain infrastructural facilities for both students of primary and junior secondary schools. Such facilities include the construction of primary schools, provision of laboratories for students, construction of toilets, provision of water and sanitation and cultural education.”

Hassan further stated that the main objective of the UBEC when it was established in 2004 was to ensure that no Nigerian child is denied 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 can access grants from UBEC.

Testifying further, the PW1 stated that the Kwara State Universal Basic Education Board, SUBEB, prepared and submitted an action plan for 2013. It was defended, and approval was given to execute certain contracts in compliance with the action plan.

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.

“Implementation of 2013 Action Plan had already commenced, contractors were already been 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 naira was diverted.”

Following this discovery, the witness said that the report of the project monitoring committee was sent to the Kwara SUBEB, asking them to comply with recommendations of the committee, but there was no response. Hence, the Commission wrote to the banks to return 2014 and 2015 funds paid to the State.

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.

Hassan further stated that the responsibility of spending UBEC grants rested solely on SUBEB while the State Governor or anyone outside SUBEB has no dealing, directly or indirectly, in spending the fund.

Further hearing in the case has been adjourned until February 17, 2025.