N1.8bn UBEC fund illegally withdrawn under Kwara ex-gov Ahmed – Witness
A prosecution witness in the ongoing trial of former Kwara State Governor, Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed, told the court on Tuesday that N1.8bn was illegally withdrawn from the Universal Basic Education Commission fund during the ex-governor’s tenure.
Ahmed is being tried alongside a former Kwara State Commissioner for Finance, Ademola Banu by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, which accused them of diverting N5.78bn UBEC funds meant for education development.
At the Tuesday proceedings before the Kwara State High Court in Ilorin, an Assistant Director of Finance at UBEC, Abubakar Hassan, appeared as a prosecution witness, testifying that N1.8bn was illegally withdrawn.
He also said the state was dotted with abandoned UBEC projects despite funds approval under Ahmed’s administration.
Led in evidence by the ECCC prosecuting counsel, Rotimi Jacobs (SAN), Hassan told the court, “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.”
According to the witness, the abandoned projects, numbering 51, spanned all 16 local government areas of Kwara State.
Additionally, Hassan said, “On January 6, 2015, N1bn was loaned from the 2013 UBEC matching grant account with Skye Bank Plc to pay staff salaries and pensions. Addressing the utilisation of the 2014 and 2015 state counterpart funds, Kwara SUBEB had illegally withdrawn N1,829,054,054.06 from funds lodged on February 18, 2016. These funds had qualified the state to access 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.
“UBEC wrote to the first defendant (Ahmed) in May 2018, drawing attention to the alleged mismanagement of education funds. However, there was no response from the state government.”
The witness stressed that “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.”
However, during cross-examination by the defence counsel, Kamaldeen Ajibade (SAN) and Gboyega Oyewole (SAN), the witness said the defendants were not signatories to SUBEB accounting, noting that SUBEB is an autonomous agency, with a separate board having an executive chairman as its head.
“States SUBEB 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,” Hassan said.
He added: “UBEC receives education action plans from states and approves same to the board. SUBEB is an independent agency under the UBEC Act. SUBEB payment is not for the state government.
“It is the duty of SUBEB to receive grants and disburse same on its own according to the law.”
Justice Mahmud Abdulgafar adjourned until March 12 and 13, 2025, for the continuation of the hearing.