EFCC Arrests Ex-Kwara Governor, Abdulfatah Ahmed

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has arrested Abdulfatah Ahmed, the immediate past governor of Kwara State (EFCC).

A crack team of operatives is interviewing the former governor at the EFCC headquarters in the Jabi region of Abuja, the nation’s capital, according to sources at the anti-graft agency.

He was said to have arrived at the EFCC headquarters about 10 a.m. on Monday, in response to the agency’s invitation.

Ahmed spent about seven hours in the interrogation room after arriving at the anti-graft agency’s headquarters, writing statements.

Although specifics of the case were still sketchy as of press time, sources said his detention was related to how about N9 billion in funds were allegedly diverted from the Kwara State government’s coffers.

The funds were allegedly diverted during Mr Ahmed’s tenure as governor of the state and his time as the Commissioner for Finance in former Governor Bukola Saraki’s administration.

Wilson Uwujaren, an EFCC spokesperson, stated that the former governor accepted the commission’s invitation.

He, on the other hand, remained silent.

Following Saraki’s election as governor of Kwara in 2003, Ahmed was named as the state’s Commissioner for Finance.

He was also the treasurer of the Nigerian Forum of Commissioners of Finance and the Chairman of Kwara State’s Budget Formulation Committee and Economic Team.

Ahmed ran for and won the Peoples Democratic Party primary in the run-up to the 2011 general elections (PDP).

After succeeding Saraki, who also won the election to represent Kwara Central senatorial district in the National Assembly after serving two terms as governor, he won the Kwara governorship seat and re-election.

In 2019, Ahmed stepped down, and the incumbent governor, Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq, was elected on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC).