The trial of former Kwara State Governor, Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed, and his former Commissioner for Finance, Ademola Banu, over an alleged ₦5.78 billion fraud has been adjourned to February 16, 2025, by a Kwara State High Court sitting in Ilorin.
The case resumed on Thursday before Justice Mahmud Abdulgafar, with the testimony of a key prosecution witness, Stanley Ujilibo, the sixth witness for the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
Ahmed and Banu are being prosecuted by the Ilorin Zonal Directorate of the EFCC over alleged mismanagement of funds belonging to the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC).
While giving evidence, Ujilibo told the court that the EFCC, during its investigation, obtained bank statements of the Kwara State Government from Polaris Bank and Guaranty Trust Bank (GTBank). He said letters were written to the Managing Directors of the then Skye Bank, now Polaris Bank, and GTBank, requesting the statements of account.
“My Lord, we wrote to the then Skye Bank, now known as Polaris Bank, and Guaranty Trust Bank to request the statements of accounts of the Kwara State Government,” the witness said.
Led in evidence by the prosecution counsel, Rotimi Jacobs, SAN, Ujilibo explained that the letters, dated August 1, 2025, were acknowledged by the banks, which later supplied the requested documents. The bank statements were tendered and admitted in evidence by the court.
The EFCC alleged that the defendants approved the use of UBEC matching grant funds to pay salaries of civil servants, contrary to the purpose for which the funds were released. According to the Commission, the grants and counterpart funds, constituting 50 percent of the total allocation, were meant for the provision of basic infrastructure in primary and junior secondary schools across the 16 local government areas of the state.
At the previous sitting, a former Accountant-General of Kwara State, Suleiman Oluwadare Ishola, who served between 2013 and 2019, had testified that ₦1 billion in UBEC matching grant was borrowed by the Ahmed administration in 2015 to pay salaries of civil servants and pensioners.
Ujilibo further told the court that the EFCC also received a petition from the Kwara State Government, which led to further correspondence with the Ministry of Finance and the Office of the Accountant-General during the investigation.
However, when the prosecution attempted to tender responses obtained from the Ministry of Finance and the Office of the Accountant-General, defence counsel led by Kamaldeen Ajibade objected, arguing that the documents had not been properly highlighted for ease of reference.
Following the objection, Justice Abdulgafar adjourned the matter to February 16, 2025, for continuation of the trial.
