Court grants ₦50m bail to ex-Kwara gov, Abdulfatah Ahmed

Former Governor of Kwara State, Abdulfatah Ahmed

Former Governor of Kwara State, Abdulfatah Ahmed, has been granted bail by the Federal High Court Ilorin in the sum of ₦50,000,000 with two sureties with landed properties in Ilorin, the state capital.

Ahmed is to deposit his international passport with the court among other conditions.

The former governor was arraigned on Friday by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) following his invitation by the anti-graft agency for questioning on Monday.

However, journalists were barred from covering the arraignment of the former governor as they were denied entry into the court.

Ahmed was taken by the anti-graft agency on Monday where he was being quizzed over transactions running into billions of naira during his time as governor of the state.

Ahmed was governor of the North Central state between May 2011 and May 2019 before he handed over to Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq.

He was once quizzed in May 2021 by a crack team of operatives at the EFCC headquarters in the Jabi area of Abuja, the nation’s capital, in connection with the alleged diversion of funds to the tune of about N9 billion from the coffers of the Kwara State Government.

The money was alleged to have been diverted during Ahmed’s tenure as governor of the state, and when he served as the Commissioner for Finance in the administration of ex-Governor Bukola Saraki.