BREAKING: EFCC arraigns Ex-Kwara governor, Ahmed over alleged N1.6 billion State funds used to charter private jets

The former governor of Kwara State, Abdulfattah Ahmed has been arraigned at the Feddeal High Court in Ilorin on Friday over alleged spending of N1.6 billion belonging to Kwara which he used to charter private jets.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC was prosecuting him, revealing that the fund was meant for the security and running cost in the State.

Ahmed was the immediate past governor of Kwara State who succeeded Senator Bukola Saraki after he served eight years in office.
The fraud was contained in a document released to some journalists in Ilorin on Friday which detailed how the former governor spent the humongous amount of fund to charter private jets.

The document further revealed that Ahmed would be charged for N10 billion fraud on the whole as he will be facing a 12 charge counts.

In one of the counts, the EFCC accused Ahmed of fraudulently converting N400 million of a N1 billion short-term loan received by the Kwara State Government from Ecobank Nigeria Limited to complete ongoing projects in the state.

The EFCC said, “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, 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.”

Ahmed served as the state finance commissioner when Dr Bukola Saraki was the governor.
He succeeded Saraki in office and governed Kwara from 2011 to 2019.