A prosecution witness on Wednesday recounted how former Kwara State Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed and his then finance commissioner, Ademola Banu, diverted N5 billion universal basic education funds meant for workers’ and teachers’ salaries and equipping primary and junior secondary schools in the state.
Abubakar Hassan, an assistant director of finance, Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), testified as the first prosecution witness in the trial of Mr Ahmed and the former finance commissioner before the Kwara State High Court in Ilorin on Wednesday.
The duo of Mr Ahmed and Mr Banu are facing prosecution by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for alleged stealing and misappropriation of N5.78 billion during the former governor’s eight-year tenure.
PREMIUM TIMES reported that the duo pleaded not guilty to the charges during their re-arraignment in October last year.
EFCC opened the trial with its first prosecution witness before judge Mahmud Abdulgafari on Wednesday.
“The erstwhile governor and his finance commissioner were accused of, among other things, having conspired to steal money meant for payment of salaries of teachers working with the Kwara State Universal Basic Education Board (Kwara SUBEB), as well as money meant to provide security and other infrastructural facilities for the people of the state,” a Wednesday night statement by the EFCC said.
State Universal Basic Education Boards (SUBEBs) receive funds from the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) based on a matching grant system, where UBEC allocates funds to each state based on its contribution, with the aim of improving basic education at the state level.
This means a state that fails to make contributions will not be able to access UBEC allocations.
Mr Hassan said in his testimony that the Matching Grant Funds from UBEC is meant to provide certain infrastructural facilities such as construction of buildings for primary schools, provision of laboratories for students in junior secondary school.
He also said the money was meant for construction of toilets, provision of water and sanitation and cultural education in the primary and junior secondary schools.
Mr Hassan further told the court that the main objective of the UBEC, 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.
His testimony also dwelled on the internal workings of UBEC.
“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 said.
He added that the state must prepare action plans (budgets), defend the projects and get approval to access grants from UBEC.
How implementation plan failed in 2013
Testifying further, the prosecution witness said that the Kwara SUBEB prepared and submitted an action plan for 2013.
According to him, the plan was defended and approved for execution of certain contracts in compliance with the action plan.
“The Commission made lodgment for 2013, 2014 and 2015. Kwara State got Matching Grant of about N2 billion for 2013, 876 million (Eight Hundred and Seventy-Six Million Naira Only) was released for 2014 while they got N982 million (Nine Hundred and Eighty-Two Million Naira Only in 2015, totaling about N5 billion,” he said.
He added that implementation of the 2013 Action Plan commenced.
But he said as contractors were being mobilised to work at the site, all of a sudden, “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 N2billion was diverted,” he said.
Following this discovery, the witness said that the report of the project monitoring committee was sent to the Kwara SUBEB, recommending the actions to be taken, but that there was no response.
He said UBEC then wrote to the banks to return the 2014 and 2015 matching 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 UBEC’s earlier recommendations about the diverted funds.
The judge adjourned further hearing in the case till 17 February 2025.