BY SEGUN ADEBAYO – The immediate-past Governor of Kwara State, Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed, and his Commissioner for Finance, Ademola Banu, have a February 16, 2026 date at the Kwara State High Court, Ilorin over an alleged ₦5.78 billion fraud brought against them by the Ilorin Zonal Directorate of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
At the resumed hearing of the case on Thursday, January 8, a key prosecution witness, Stanley Ujilibo testified against Ahmed and Banu before the presiding judge, Justice Mahmud Abdulgafar.
Ujilibo, who is the sixth prosecution witness, told the court that the EFCC, in the course of its investigation, obtained bank statements of the Kwara State government from Polaris Bank and Guaranty Trust Bank (GTBank).
Led in evidence by Rotimi Jacobs (SAN), the witness stated that letters were written to the managing directors of the then Skye Bank (now Polaris Bank) and GTBank, requesting the relevant statements of account.
“My Lord, we wrote to the then Skye Bank, now known as Polaris Bank, and Guaranty Trust Bank to request the statements of accounts of the Kwara State government”, Ujilibo said.
According to him, the letters, dated 1st August 2025, were duly received and acknowledged by the banks, which subsequently responded with the requested documents.
Given the bank statements tendered in evidence and admitted by the court as exhibits, the EFCC claimed 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 meant for.
The anti-graft agency further said 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.
Offering further insights, Ujilibo told the Court that EFCC also received a petition from the Kwara State government, which prompted further correspondence with the Ministry of Finance and the Office of the Accountant-General during the investigation.
This is as a former Accountant-General of Kwara State, Suleiman Oluwadare Ishola, who served between 2013 and 2019, had at a previous sitting told the Court that the sum of ₦1 billion, being a UBEC matching grant, was borrowed by the Abdulfatah Ahmed-led administration in 2015 to offset salaries of civil servants and pensioners.
However, with the prosecution seeking to tender responses obtained from the Ministry of Finance and the Office of the Accountant-General, the defence team, led by Kamaldeen Ajibade (SAN) raised an observation, noting that the documents had not been properly highlighted for ease of reference.
In upholding the defence counsel’s statement, Justice Abdulgafar adjourned the matter to Monday, February 16, 2026, for continuation of the trial.
