The corruption trial of three officials of the Kwara State Scholarship Board proceeded on Wednesday with a prosecution witness, Abdulkareem Ismail, telling the court that the defendants forged the signatures of 326 students who are indigenes of the state to defraud them of the bursary award given by the state government.

The defendants are Fatimoh Yusuf, who is the board’s chairperson; Fatai Lamidi, executive secretary; and Stephen Ajewole, accountant.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission alleged that they diverted N6.269m out of N50m released by the state government for the 2018 bursary awards to 10,000 students who are indigenes of Kwara State.

The defendants are facing seven counts before Justice Sikiru Oyinloye at the Kwara State High Court in Ilorin.

Testifying before the Court, Abdulkareem, a former President of the National Association of Kwara State Students, Sokoto State Polytechnic, alleged that only 50 students of the Sokoto State Polytechnic benefited from the controversial bursary award from Kwara State Government while officials of the scholarship board claimed they had paid 336 Students.

Abdulkareem said, “My Lord, on that day, when the scholarship board officials arrived, the school was on strike; we did a headcount, less than 200 students were on the ground; the board officials disqualified many people; they said only 50 students were eligible to collect the bursary.

“I was among the 50 persons that benefited from the bursary; they never asked us to append our signatures and I did not append my signature.

“I was invited by the EFCC last year; I was shown the list of beneficiaries submitted by the board, I discovered that there were many irregularities.

“In the list shown me at the EFCC office, 326 students were paid as claimed by the scholarship board, but the list was not a true reflection of what happened; only 50 students were paid.”

One of the executive members of the National Association of Kwara State Students, Isiaka Adeshina, who testified earlier, said the scholarship board officials listed his name as one of the beneficiaries of the 2018 bursary award at the University of Ilorin while he received nothing.

He said, “My Lord, I happened to be a student of the University of Ilorin; my name was shortlisted as one of the beneficiaries of the 2018 bursary award released by the Kwara State Government; my serial number on the list was 725, but I did not collect the money.

“Each student was entitled to the sum of N5,000 but to my surprise, when I was invited by the EFCC, they confronted me with some documents, especially the payment vouchers, I found my name among those that had been paid, they signed against my name as a beneficiary, but the signature is not mine, my signature was forged.”

Justice Oyinloye adjourned till March 23 for further proceedings.