A prosecution witness in the ongoing trial of former Kwara State Governor, Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed, testified on Tuesday that N1.8 billion was illegally withdrawn from the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) fund during Ahmed’s tenure.
Ahmed is standing trial alongside former Kwara State Commissioner for Finance, Ademola Banu, following allegations by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) that they diverted N5.78 billion in UBEC funds meant for education development.
During proceedings before the Kwara State High Court in Ilorin, the Assistant Director of Finance at UBEC, Abubakar Hassan, appeared as a prosecution witness. He revealed that despite funds being approved under Ahmed’s administration, several UBEC projects across the state remained abandoned.
“My Lord, the projects monitoring team 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 told the court.
According to him, a total of 51 abandoned projects were identified across all 16 local government areas of Kwara State. He further disclosed that on January 6, 2015, N1 billion was taken from the 2013 UBEC matching grant account with Skye Bank Plc to pay staff salaries and pensions. Additionally, on February 18, 2016, N1,829,054,054.06 was illegally withdrawn from funds that had enabled the state to qualify for the Federal Government’s UBEC matching grants.
“UBEC sent a letter of invitation, requesting documentary evidence regarding the Kwara State government’s use of UBEC funds. We submitted documents showing the lodgment of funds to the Kwara SUBEB. The projects were categorised into three: early care education, primary school education, and junior secondary school education,” Hassan explained.
He further testified that UBEC formally wrote to Ahmed in May 2018, drawing attention to the alleged mismanagement of education funds, but received no response from the state government.
“State matching grants are not permitted to be borrowed or utilised 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 added.
However, under cross-examination by defence counsels Kamaldeen Ajibade (SAN) and Gboyega Oyewole (SAN), Hassan clarified that Ahmed and Banu were not signatories to the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) accounts, as SUBEB operates as an autonomous agency with a separate board headed by an executive chairman.
“State SUBEBs have distinct and separate accounts from the state government’s. The governor is not allowed to be a member of the SUBEB board. Ex-Governor Ahmed was not a member of SUBEB, neither was he a signatory to the account. UBEC usually pays matching grants to states’ SUBEB accounts,” he stated.
He also explained that UBEC receives education action plans from states, approves them, and disburses funds directly to SUBEB. “SUBEB payment is not for the state government. It is the duty of SUBEB to receive grants and disburse them on its own according to the law,” he added.
Following the testimony, Justice Mahmud Abdulgafar adjourned the case until March 12 and 13, 2025, for the continuation of the hearing.
