The former Chairman of the Kwara State Universal Basic Education Board, Alhaji Lanre Daibu, has told a Kwara State High Court sitting in Ilorin presided over by Justice Mahmud AbdulGafar that the N1 billion loan got from the Board in 2013 was used by the then state government to augment payment of salary of workers and pensioners being owed.
Alhaji Daibu, who is a witness of the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC), was testifying in the case of alleged diversion of N5.78 billion Kwara State Education Board (KWSUBEB) against former state governor, Abdulfatah Ahmed and his Finance Commissioner, Demola Banu.
The former Chairman of the Board, who is also a lawyer, added that the former Governor and the ex-Finance Commissioner were not signatories to the SUBEB Account.
Alhaji Daibu had narrated to the court that the then Commissioner for Finance, Mr. Banu, had approached the Board to explain about paucity of fund in the government’s coffers and the need to request for a N1bn loan from the SUBEB to pay workers and pensioners.
He said that the Board had met and sought commitment of the state government’s request in written form, before the release was approved.
The EFCC witness, who had said that the state government would repay the loan from the monthly revenue allocation, added that the money was not paid back before he left office and the Board was dissolved.
Counsel to the former Governor, Kamal Ajibade, during cross-examination, had put it to Daibu that the statement which the former SUBEB Chairman made to the EFCC was made under caution and that it was made as a suspect of the EFCC.
Daibu also said that the N1bn loan was transferred to the salary account of the state government and not to either of the personal account of the defendants.
Also, during his cross examination by counsel to the first defendant, a retired Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Finance, Mr. Benjamin Sehinde Fatigun, said that the ministry generated a memo to the Governor suggesting way out for the state government due to difficulty in payment of salary of its workforce.
“There were issues in payment of salaries in 2015. Monthly FAAC allocation to the state government, as at that time, was unstable”, he said.
He also said that SUBEB was identified as quick fix to rescue the government from the situation, saying that was the reason why the loan was borrowed to augment the staff salaries which included civil servants, teachers and pensioners.
Just like Daibu, Benjamin said the N1bn loan from SUBEB was paid into the state’s salary account and not personal accounts of the first and second defendants.