The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has slammed 14 new charges of alleged fraud totalling ₦5.78 billion against former Kwara State Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed and his Commissioner of Finance, Mr Ademola Banu.
The charges were presented before a Kwara State High Court presided over by Justice Mahmud Abdulgafar on Monday.
The charges against Ahmed and Banu center around allegations of diversion and misappropriation of public funds intended for various projects and security initiatives within the state.
This latest re-arraignment follows the withdrawal of the case from the Federal High Court in Ilorin last week, where they were previously on trial.
The EFCC’s decision to transfer the case was prompted by the transfer of the former trial judge, Justice Evelyn Anyadike, to another division.
Ahmed and Banu had initially been arraigned on a 12-count charge of mismanagement of public funds on April 29, 2024, to which they both pleaded not guilty.
While the name of ex-governor Ahmed featured in all the 14 counts, Banu’s name did not appear in count 7 where only Ahmed was accused of failure to fill assets declaration form offered him by officers of the EFCC upon arrest contrary to Section 27(3)(c) of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (Establishment) Act No. 1 of 2004, which is an offence punishable with a term of 5 years imprisonment under Section 27(3) of the same Act.
Abdulfatah among sundry issues allegedly spent an aggregate sum of ₦1,610,730,500.00 (One Billion, Six Hundred and Ten Million, Seven Hundred and Thirty Thousand, Five Hundred Naira), meant for the security and administration of the state to charter private jets through Travel Messengers Limited, contrary to Section 22(5) of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act, 2000 and punishable under the same section.
The former governor and his finance commissioner were alleged to have conspired to steal money that was meant to pay salaries of teachers working with Kwara State Universal Basic Education Board, meant to provide security and other infrastructural facilities for the people of the State among others.
Count one of the charges read, “That you, ABDULFATAH AHMED (while being the Governor of Kwara State) and ADEMOLA BANU (while being the Commissioner of Finance of Kwara State), on or about 14 January, 2015 in Ilorin, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, did illegally spend the sum of ₦1,000,000,000.00 (One Billion Naira) to pay Salaries of civil servants in Kwara State which sum was originally domiciled in the Kwara State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) Matching Grant account and which sum formed part of the funds allocated for the execution of the projects stated pp3 2@in the action plan for the year 2013 and approved by the Universal Basic Education Board (UBEC) and you thereby committed an offence contrary to section 22(5) of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act, 2000 and punishable under the same section.”
