Alleged N5.78bn fraud: EFCC presents more witnesses against Kwara ex-gov Ahmed

Ahmed

At the resumed trial on Tuesday, the Ilorin Zonal Directorate of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, presented more witnesses to prove a case of alleged N5.78 billion involving the immediate past Governor of Kwara State, Abdulfatah Ahmed, and his former Commissioner for Finance, Ademola Banu. The sixth prosecution witness, Suleiman Oluwadare Ishola, who served as the Accountant-General of the State between 2013 – 2019, told Justice Mahmud Abdulgafar of the Kwara State High Court sitting in Ilorin that the vouchers to borrow N1 billion were raised by SUBEB officials.

Suleiman had, in his testimony on Friday, April 11, 2025, during the last court proceeding, told the court that the sum of N1 billion, being a matching grant from UBEC, was borrowed by the Abdulfatah administration in 2015 to pay salaries of civil servants and pensioners.

Ishola maintained that neither of the defendants authorised the vouchers nor received any direct payments from the borrowed funds.

His testimony corroborated the earlier testimony by Barrister Lanre Daibu, former SUBEB Chairman, who also confirmed receiving formal approval from the state government to access the UBEC matching grant for salary payments.

Following cross-examination by defence counsels Jimoh A. Mumini (SAN) and Gboyega Oyewole (SAN), representing Ahmed and Banu respectively, Ishola was discharged from the witness box.

The prosecution then called its seventh witness (PW7), Stanley Ujilibo, an Assistant Commander of the EFCC, who was part of the investigation team.

Led in evidence by Rotimi Jacobs (SAN), Ujilibo narrated the sequence of events leading to the defendants’ prosecution. He told the court that the EFCC received a petition dated April 17, 2024, signed by the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP), Kwara State, Akande Idowu Ayoola, on behalf of the Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice. The petition alleged diversion of UBEC funds allocated for educational infrastructure across the state’s 16 local government areas.