Abubakar Hassan, an Assistant Director of Finance at Universal Basic Education Board (UBEB), has told a Kwara State High Court how former Governor of Kwara State, Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed, diverted the board’s funds and abandoned 51 projects.
Abdulfatah Ahmed, and his Commissioner for Finance, Ademola Banu,are facing trial over an alleged misappropriation of Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) funds to the tune of N5.78 billion.
They were accused of conspiring to divert funds meant for the payment of teachers’ salaries under the Kwara State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB), the provision of basic infrastructure for primary and junior secondary schools, and security initiatives in the state. They were arraigned by the Ilorin Zonal Directorate of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on October 21, 2024.
Led in evidence by counsel to the EFCC, Rotimi Jacobs, on Monday,Hassan testified that a total of 51 projects approved under the 2013 action plan were abandoned due to a lack of funds.
According to Hassan, the UBEC project monitoring committee discovered that, despite the approval for these projects, the state government under the leadership of erstwhile governor mismanaged the funds.
“My Lord, the Projects Monitoring Exercise 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,” Hassan stated.
He further explained that the abandoned projects spanned all 16 Local Government Areas of Kwara State.
Besides, Hassan revealed that on January 6, 2015, N1 billion was loaned from the 2013 UBEC Matching Grant Account with Skye Bank Plc to pay staff salaries and pensions.
Speaking on the utilization of the 2014 and 2015 State Counterpart Funds, he stated that the Kwara SUBEB had illegally withdrawn N1,829,054,054.06 from funds lodged on February 18, 2016.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.
He further testified that UBEC had 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 categorized into three: early care education, primary school education, and junior secondary school education,” he explained.
He added that UBEC had written to the first defendant (Abdulfatah Ahmed) in May 2018, drawing attention to the alleged mismanagement of education funds. However, there was no response from the state government.
“State Matching Grants are not permitted to be borrowed or utilized 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,” Hassan stated.
