A Plateau State High Court sitting in Jos on Monday has fixed
wednesday 16 May 2018 for the arraignment of Senator David Jang who is
being detained by the EFCC for misappropriation of funds.
Reports say that the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission had on Monday May 7, preferred a 12 count charge bordering on
alleged corruption and misappropriation on Jang.
Sen. Jang who currently represents Plateau North Senatorial District,
is alleged to have misappropriated over N6 billion two months to the
end of his tenure as governor of Plateau State in 2015.
According to the charges, Jang is also said to have embezzled over N4
billion from the state coffers through a cashier in the office of the
Secretary to the State Government, one Yusuf Pam, who is also charged
along with Jang for also personally enriching himself with N11 million.
At the hearing, the prosecuting counsel, Rotimi Jacob (SAN)
representing the EFCC, moved an experte application, to prefer the
charge to the court.
Jacob said that the case was listed for an experte application for
leave and not arraignment, he further prayed the court to give them two
days to produce the accused persons before the court for proper
arraignment.
Counsel representing Sen. Jang, Robert Clarke (SAN) while responding,
expressed shock that his client has been behind bars since May 7,
without bail and proper arraignment.
Clarke added that the arraignment should have been done owing that
his client had been served with papers and the court served with same.
The judge, Justice D.D Longji, in his ruling said that what the
prosecuting counsel did was right, as the matter was not ready for
arraignment.
Longji said that the matter was for an experte application to prefer
the charges before the court adding that he had to acknowledge the
matter before arraignment.
He added that he had also received the bail application for the
accused persons but cannot act on it until they (accused persons) have
been properly arraigned.
He thereafter adjourned the matter to May 16, for proper arraignment and hearing for the application for bail.
Whistle Nigeria reports that over 200 Security men including Police,
DSS and National Security and Civil Defense were position to secured the
court in case of any breach of Law and order.
Meanwhile hundreds of Youths under the aegis of the Jang Support
groups had protest what they term “jungle justice” of the senator. They
queried why the senator was detained for 1 whole week, when he has been
faithful in honouring all invitations by the EFCC.
The Youths had as early as 7:00am gather along the road linking the
court holding Placards with inscriptions such as, ” Free Jang, Jang is
the Messiah of the Middle Belt”.
Several who spoke to our correspondent in Jos indicated that Jang’s
detention is simply a witch-hunt to derail his plans to contest the 2019
presidential elections. They accused the current APC administration for
injustice.
In a related development some APC Plateau Youths have supported arraignment of Jang by EFCC
The Youths also protested in support of the Economic and Financial
Crimes Commission (EFCC) anti-corruption campaign and latest arrests of
prominent Nigerian public figures.
The group who carried Placards with the inscriptions Jang please
return Plateau state N3 billion naira SUBEB funds ,bring back our AMCON
funds ,where is our N2billion CBN /SME funds you collected ,EFCC is
doing a great Job
One of the protesters Pam Datiri said the Economic and Financial
Crime Commission ( EFCC ) should be commended for investigations into
the embezzlement of government money by previous administration in the
state .
He said the anti-corruption stance of the present administration
would ensure that such perfidy and use of money meant for the
development of the country by politicians at the corridor of power would
not happen again.
We therefore urged EFCC to leave no stone unturned to make sure that monies stolen from the state is returned .
“We are commending EFCC for their plans of taking Senator Jang to
court so that when found guilty justice will take its cause, which will
sound as a warning to others who may want to so corrupt themselves by
diverting public funds meant for the provision of social amenities for
our citizens
Our interest is to ensure corrupt free society and for the first
time we have seen a government that is determined to rid this scourge
from the country,” Pam said.