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The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is set to charge former Kwara State Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed to court for allegedly spending N1.6billion on chartered jets, just as he has also been accused of alleged mismanagement of security votes.
Ahmed is charged along with a former Commissioner for Finance, Mr. Ademola Banu, who served with him.
Both will be tried at the Federal High Court in Ilorin, being the jurisdiction where the alleged offences were committed.
The two are to account for the alleged conversion of N400million short-term loan of N1 billion obtained by the Kwara State Government from Ecobank Nigeria Limited.
Some of the charges read: “That you, Abdulfatah Ahmed (while being the Governor of Kwara State) between 2015 and 2019 in Ilorin within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court used an aggregate sum of N1,610,730,500.00 property of Kwara State Government, meant for the security and running cost of the Government of Kwara State to charter private jets through Travel Messengers Limited on different occasions for your local travels and which sum you reasonably ought to have known formed part of the proceeds of your unlawful act, to wit: Criminal Breach of Trust or Theft and you thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 15(2)(a) of the Money Laundering (prohibition) Act, 2011 (As Amended) and punishable under Section 15 (3) of the same Act.
“That you, Abdulfatah Ahmed (while being the Governor of Kwara State) and Ademola Banu (while being the Commissioner of Finance of Kwara State) sometime in 2019, in Ilorin within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court indirectly converted the sum of N400,000,000.00 out of the N1billion short-term loan obtained by the Kwara State Government from Ecobank Nigeria Limited for the purpose of completing some projects and which sum you reasonably ought to have known formed part of the proceeds of your unlawful Act, to wit: criminal breach of trust/theft and you thereby committed an offence contrary to section 15(2) of the Money Laundering (prohibition) Act, 2011 (As Amended) and punishable under section 15 (3) of the same Act.”
“That you, Abdulfatah Ahmed (while being the Governor of Kwara State) and Ademola Banu (while being the Commissioner of Finance of Kwara State), between January and December 2018 in Ilorin, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, conspired between yourselves to commit an offence, to wit: Conversion of the sum of N411million property of Kwara State Government meant for the provision of security in Kwara State, which sum you reasonably ought to have known was a proceed of an unlawful act, to wit; theft/fraud and you thereby committed an offence contrary to section 18(a) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) (Amendment) Act, 2012 and punishable under section 15(3) of the same Act.”
It was learnt that security has been beefed up in Ilorin ahead of the arraignments following a protest by some Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) members on Wednesday.
A source said: “We are aware of a plot to politicise the trial of the governor. Some members of the PDP even marched on the EFCC Zonal Command.
“The anti-graft is non-political and we will remain neutral. This was why the Zonal Commander addressed the protesters in Ilorin.
“We will not take things for granted, we will beef up security at the court to protect the suspects and the prosecution and the defence teams.”
