Abdulfatah Out of His Anonymous Cocoon

The trend in Nigeria for retiring state governors to almost immediately leave the country or start to live underground and far from gawking paparazzi continues. Former Kwara Governor, Abdulfatah Ahmed, did not break this tradition when he vacated the governorship seat for the incumbent Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq. However, Abdulfatah broke out of his cocoon recently while attempting to correct a rumour that he got involved in a tango with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

And knowing that involvement with the anti-graft agency seldom revolve around the good things that one had done, Abdulfatah’s intention with his reemergence was to extricate himself from any and all damaging implications. Whether he managed to accomplish this remains unknown.

The news began making the rounds some time ago that officials of the EFCC had sandwiched Abdulfatah with a number of other past Kwara State officials in a cell for questioning. According to the report, the EFCC was certain that Abdulfatah was directly or indirectly involved in the disappearance of N9 billion, a fraud that was registered as a diversion of funds in EFCC’s dossiers.

Furthermore, it was intimated that Abdulfatah’s role extended to his time as the state’s Commissioner for Finance. In other words, if Abdulfatah is found guilty of the charge, he would be sentenced for pilfering state funds as Finance Commissioner and as state Governor, which should amount to a tidy dozen years. But Abdulfatah has declared that he was only invited to help the anti-graft agency clarify some muddy details. This is good for him, even though it is reported that he spent two nights with EFCC officials. Then again, these things take time, especially considering the long list of fraud allegations against him that pop up occasionally. Regardless, Abdulfatah is out of his cocoon and back to the light.