Speaker Danladi accuses ex-gov Ahmed of N1.8bn fraud

The Speaker, Kwara State House of Assembly, Yakubu Salihu Danladi, has alleged the former governor of the state, Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed of embezzling about N1.8 billion meant for the construction of 33km Ilesha/Gwanara road in the Kaiama and Baruten Local Government Areas.

The Punch reports that Danladi disclosed this while speaking with journalists during the one-year celebration of the 9th Assembly in the state.

The Speaker said, “The former administration in the state awarded the surface dressing of the 33km Ilesha/Gwanara Road to a contractor and nothing was done on it. The youth in the area blocked our former House of Representatives member, the video went viral.

“It is a 33km road, which the former governor, Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed, used as a conduit to siphon Kwara resources because N1.8bn had been paid to the contractor with nothing being done on the road.”

Danladi, who said the people in the area had never seen an asphalt road before, stated that Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq had awarded the road with asphalt tarring at a lower cost and would be completed before the end of this year.

Reacting to this, the Chief Press Secretary to the former governor, Alhaji Abdulwahab Oba, said the contract for the road was awarded by the administration and the contractor was paid in relation to the work done, adding, “We paid according to specification for the job as approved by the state Ministry of Works.

“What the speaker has said is political to please his people. We have done the needful when we were in government. The present administration should do the needful by serving the people. It should face the future and do the needful because four years is short.”