0
0
An Ilorin High Court has adjourned the N5.78 billion alleged fraud trial of a former Governor of Kwara State, Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed, and his former Commissioner for Finance, Ademola Banu, to February 16, 2026.
The trial resumed on Thursday, January 8, 2025, before Justice Mahmud Abdulgafar of the Kwara State High Court, Ilorin, with the testimony of a key prosecution witness, Stanley Ujilibo.
Ahmed and Banu are being prosecuted by the Ilorin Zonal Directorate of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) over the alleged misappropriation of public funds.
Ujilibo, the sixth prosecution witness (PW6), told the court that in the course of its investigation, the EFCC obtained bank statements of the Kwara State Government from Polaris Bank and Guaranty Trust Bank (GTBank).
Led in evidence by Rotimi Jacobs, the witness said letters dated August 1, 2025, were written to the Managing Directors of the then Skye Bank (now Polaris Bank) and GTBank, requesting statements of the state government’s accounts.
“My Lord, we wrote to the then Skye Bank, now Polaris Bank, and Guaranty Trust Bank to request the statements of accounts of the Kwara State Government,” he said.
Demola Babu led by EFCC officials
According to him, the banks acknowledged receipt of the letters and later supplied the requested documents, which were tendered in evidence and admitted by the court as exhibits.
The EFCC alleged that the defendants approved the use of Universal Basic Education Commission, UBEC matching grant funds to pay salaries of civil servants, contrary to the purpose for which the funds were released.
The Commission stated that the UBEC matching grants and counterpart funds; constituting 50 per cent of the total allocation, were meant for the provision of basic infrastructural facilities in primary and junior secondary schools across the 16 local government areas of Kwara State.
At the previous sitting, a former Accountant-General of Kwara State, Suleiman Oluwadare Ishola, who served between 2013 and 2019, testified that
N1 billion in UBEC matching grant funds was borrowed by the Abdulfatah Ahmed administration in 2015 to pay salaries of civil servants and pensioners.
Ujilibo further informed the court that the EFCC received a petition from the Kwara State Government, which prompted further correspondence with the Ministry of Finance and the Office of the Accountant-General.
However, when the prosecution sought to tender responses 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.
Justice Abdulgafar consequently adjourned the matter to February 16, 2026, for continuation of the trial.
