Kwara Court Admits Additional Exhibits in N5.78bn Corruption Case Against Ex-Governor

A Kwara State High Court sitting in Ilorin on Thursday admitted additional exhibits in the ongoing N5.78 billion corruption trial of former Governor Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed and his former Commissioner for Finance, Alhaji Ademola Banu.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is prosecuting the duo over alleged misappropriation of funds, including Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) matching grants and counterpart funds intended for infrastructure in primary and junior secondary schools across the state.

At the resumed proceedings before Justice Mahmud Abdulgafar, the sixth prosecution witness, Ujilibo, testified that the EFCC had obtained the Kwara State Government’s bank statements from Polaris Bank and Guaranty Trust Bank, covering loans secured to pay teachers’ salaries under the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB).

“My Lord, we wrote to the then Skye Bank, now Polaris Bank, and Guaranty Trust Bank requesting statements of SUBEB accounts and merging grants for 2013 and 2014,” Ujilibo stated. He added that the banks provided all requested documents, which were subsequently tendered and admitted as exhibits.

However, proceedings were briefly delayed due to a dispute over the arrangement of the documents. Defence counsel, Mr. Kamaldeen Ajibade (SAN), argued that the bundle presented differed from what had been served on the defence and was neither paginated nor properly organised. Prosecution counsel, Rotimi Jacobs (SAN), countered that the documents were the same as those served and that arranging them was not the prosecution’s responsibility.

Justice Abdulgafar adjourned the trial to February 16, 2026, to allow proper arrangement of the exhibits.

Speaking after the session, Ajibade described the situation as “unacceptable in a criminal trial,” stressing that the defence must have adequate access to evidence. Jacobs, however, maintained that the EFCC had fulfilled its duty.

The EFCC alleges that Ahmed and Banu approved the use of UBEC matching grant funds to pay civil servants’ salaries, contrary to their intended purpose. Earlier in the trial, former Kwara State Accountant-General Suleiman Oluwadare Ishola testified that N1 billion of UBEC matching grants was borrowed in 2015 to pay salaries and pensions.