Abubakar Hassan, the first witness in the prosecution of the immediate past governor of Kwara State, Abdulfatah Ahmed, and his Commissioner of Finance, Ademola Banu, has disclosed how the ex-governor’s administration allegedly misappropriated the Universal Basic Education Board (UBEC) funds to the tune of N5.78 billion.
Ahmed and Banu are being prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) over alleged stealing and mismanagement of public funds to the tune of N5.78 billion before Justice Mahmud Abdulgafar of the Kwara State High Court sitting in Ilorin, the state capital.
The former governor and his finance commissioner among other things were accused to have conspired to steal money meant for payment of salaries of teachers working with UBEC as well as money meant to provide security and other infrastructural facilities for the people of Kwara State, leading to their arraignment on October 21, 2024, by the Ilorin Zonal Directorate of the EFCC.
However, the duo pleaded not guilty to the charges when they were read to them. Consequently, they were admitted to bail and the case was adjourned for trial.
At the resumed hearing of the case on Wednesday, December 4, the EFCC presented its first witness, Abubakar Hassan, an Assistant Director of Finance at UBEC.
While being led in evidence by the EFCC counsel, Rotimi Jacobs (SAN), Hassan told the court that the Kwara State Government allegedly misappropriated about N5 billion meant to execute projects at primary and junior secondary schools between 2013 and 2015, when Ahmed held sway as governor.
Hassan said: “The Matching Grant Funds from the Universal Basic Education Commission is meant to provide certain infrastructural facilities for both students of primary and junior secondary schools.
“Such facilities include the construction of building for primary schools, provision of laboratories for students, construction of toilets, provision of water and sanitation and cultural education.”
Hassan further stated that the main objective of the UBEC when it was established in 2004 was to ensure that no Nigerian child is denied basic education. He said basic education started from primary school to junior secondary school.
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Stating the procedures for obtaining grants from the commission, the witness said: “UBEC law provides that the Chairman of State Universal Basic Education Board, its Executive Secretary and the Director of Finance are signatories to Matching Grants Accounts. The Matching Grants Account is opened with any commercial bank or the Central Bank of Nigeria.”
He added that the state has to prepare action plans (budgets), defend the projects, and get approval before it could access grants from UBEC.
The witness stated that the Kwara State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) prepared and submitted an action plan for 2013. It was defended and approval was given to execute certain contracts in compliance with the action plan.
Hassan said: “The commission made lodgment for 2013, 2014, and 2015. Kwara State got Matching Grant of about N2 billion for 2013, N876 million was released for 2014 while they got N982 million in 2015, totalling about N5 billion.
“Implementation of 2013 Action Plan had already commenced, contractors were already being mobilized to work at the site but surprisingly, during our project monitoring exercise we discovered that the monies meant for the project (2013) had been diverted by the Kwara SUBEB. We discovered that about N2 billion was diverted.”
Following this discovery, the witness said the report of the projects monitoring committee was sent to the Kwara SUBEB, asking them to comply with the recommendations of the committee but there was no response.
He disclosed that the commission wrote to the banks to return 2014 and 2015 funds paid to the state.
He said there were no activities for 2016, 2017, and 2018 due to the failure of the state to comply with its earlier recommendations about the diverted funds.
Justice Abdulgafar, therefore, adjourned further hearing in the case till February 17, 2025.
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