A FORMER governor of Kwara state, Abdulfattah Ahmed, has spent his third day in the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) custody in Ilorin, Kwara State.
A reliable source at the EFCC headquarters in Abuja confirmed to The ICIR on Wednesday that Ahmed was at the Ilorin office of the commission over alleged financial misconduct during his tenure as governor.
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“Yes, the former governor is at our Ilorin office; he is undergoing rigorous investigation, and he has been there since Monday,” the source told The ICIR on condition of anonymity.
Meanwhile, protests erupted at the Zonal office of the EFCC on Wednesday, February 21, over Ahmed’s continued detention.
The protests dissipated after a representative of the anti-corruption agency spoke with the demonstrators.
On Monday, February 19, there were reports that the EFCC interrogated and detained Ahmed over suspected fraudulent transactions involving billions of naira that took place when he was governor.
The former governor had yet to be released as of the time of filing this report.
On the accusation against Ahmed, our source stated that since the EFCC was only conducting a preliminary inquiry, it could not state immediately how the money was spent.
The source added that investigations were ongoing.
In September 2022, Ahmed denied misappropriating funds. He described a forensic audit report indicting his administration of financial misappropriation as “preposterous and unfounded.”
Ahmed said this in a statement released by his spokesman, Wahab Oba.
The ICIR reported that the audit report commissioned by the Kwara State government disclosed that about N11.9 billion was stolen from the state’s treasury between 2011 and 2016 under Ahmed’s administration.
Reacting to the report, the former governor explained that every expenditure during the period under review was properly appropriated and followed due process.
Ahmed said since he left office, various auditing agencies had properly audited and certified the state accounts.
The former governor also challenged his successor to account for how the state government spent about N.3 trillion accruing to it since he took over office without commensurate infrastructural development in the state.
Ahmed served as Kwara State’s governor from 2011 until 2019. He succeeded Bukola Saraki as the governor of the North-Central state.
The ICIR, in a report on Sunday, February 18, listed ten prominent Nigerians currently having cases with the EFCC.
While some cases are in court, others are still being investigated.
You can read about some of the pending cases here.
A reporter with the ICIR
A Journalist with a niche for quality and a promoter of good governance