As Court Clears Jang of Misappropriation Allegations…
In this piece, Seriki Adinoyi examines EFCC’s case against ex-Governor Jonah Jang of Plateau State, and the travail he went through, before being discharged and acquitted of misappropriation allegations by an high court
Hitting the nail right on the head, the presiding judge said “The court does not find any evidence of dishonesty as to resolve the matter in favour of the prosecution. The prosecution has not discharged the burden of these counts to warrant the accused being found guilty as charged.”
Those were the final words that discharged and acquitted the former Governor of Plateau State, Senator Jonah David Jang and the former cashier in the office of the Secretary to the State Government, Mr. Yusuf Pam, of the 17-count charge levelled against them by the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC).
What immediately followed was a high jubilation that rocked the entire court premises. Not even the stern looking security personnel could control the jubilant crowd that went agog.
The atmosphere had been tense around the court premises when the people woke up to meet that the entire court area was cordoned off by fierce looking ant-riot security men, presumably to whisk away anyone that attempt to protest the outcome of the judgement, but alas, it was not a protest but rather a high jubilation.
The incident immediately reminded one of the scripture that says ‘when the righteous prospers the people rejoices’. The entire Jos went viral with the news; young and old, both took the news and ran to their neighbours with it.
In a jiffy, the internet space was bombarded. But as if to cut short the excitement, the EFCC furiously and curiously issued a statement assuring that the judgement will be appealed; in fact, it added that it has commenced the process already. But that didn’t deter anyone as the excitement escalated like wild fire.
Perhaps, the spontaneous excitement was predicated on the fact that many saw the entire prosecution as a needless political witch-hunt, especially for a Jang that has been adjudged the best Governor Plateau has ever had, in every ramification, since the time of J D Gomwalk.
The testimonies of his good governance are in every nook and cranny of the state.One would have taught that such a leading light should have been celebrated and have his name imprinted across the state, but politics is a bitch! Nigeria politics will want to smear your name, drag you in the mud, and make a mess of every good achievement a man in the opposition has ever made.
That seems to be the case of Jang. A Governor, who was in September, 2008 commended by the same EFCC, under Mrs. Farida Waziri for transparent and prudent management of the state’s resources is now the one being prosecuted by the same commission.
What has now changed? Analysts took to the radio the morning after the judgement to express their minds on the entire trial, describing it as mere witch-hunt. They also tried to interpret Justice Christy Dabup’s judgement and indeed concluded that the EFCC had no business going to the court with the case. They concluded that the anti-graft commission did not do its proper investigations before hurrying to the court with prosecution, adding that its action must have been driven by political sentiments so much that it didn’t bother to do due diligence.
In fact, an analyst described what the anti-graft commission did as wasting tax-payers money in driving after frivolities, adding that if the monies used in pursuing the case were personal funds, no one would have embarked on such a white goose chase. It’s really unfortunate.
Jang’s travail began in the build-up to the 2015 elections when he made a choice of GNS Pwajok to succeed him. He literally incurred the wrath of Plateau people who felt it was an affront on the other tribes in the state for Jang to have anointed his kinsman to take over from him after ruling the state for eight years.
Every good deed and all the development he brought to the state became secondary as the people, including his party members worked against the victory of his candidate, paving way for the least expected candidate, Mr. Simon Lalong, to take the day. Lalong became Governor by protest votes against Jang and his candidate. As far as Plateau was concerned, it didn’t matter who became Governor; whether good or bad, so long as it was not Jang’s candidate.
Upon emergence of Lalong as the governor-elect, Jang invited him to a meeting to plan on handover but he allegedly turned down the invitation possibly for fear of the unknown thereby further heightening the already tensed situation. It took the frantic mediation of some clerics led by Rev. Gideon Para-Mallam, to bring the duo to meet for handover notes.
Jang also was not at the stadium for the inauguration ceremony of Lalong possibly because he feared that Lalong may instigate his supporters against him at the venue. On assumption of office, Lalong also did not hide his emotions, and had allegedly vowed to jail Jang and make sure to recover all ‘looted funds’ that belong to the state.
Driven by such emotions and political sentiments, errors are bound to occur; rumours and false allegations sold out to the public. Of course, that always happen when emotions override reasoning, Lalong is not an exception. It was gathered that the state government, in its letter-headed paper wrote a petition signed by the Secretary to the State Government (SSG) to the EFCC and ICPC pressuring them to go after Jang. Well, there would have been nothing wrong about that, if the state actually found anything incriminating, especially when it has to do with recovering funds belonging to the state, but where it is driven by emotions and political sentiments it ends in pitfalls.
When Jang was eventually arrested, he was kept in EFCC custody for about ten days. The anti-graft agents initially wanted to try him in Abuja, but they were prevailed upon to take the case to Jos. In Jos, the case was assigned to Justice Daniel Longji of High Court-5. Longji was Attorney General and Commissioner of Justice to former Governor Joshua Dariye, a known political rival to Jang. Indeed, it was Dariye that appointed Longji as a judge of the state High Court. When the case came before Justice Longji in May 2018, he denied Jang’s application for bail. He said after listening to the parties he has no doubt in his mind that the case was a sensitive and contentious one which should be adjourned to a later date for ruling. He therefore ordered that Jang be reminded in Jos prison for ten days to punish him. Jang supporters considered this as a subtle way by Justice Longji to take his pound of flesh. They were disappointed that despite the written application for that was made available, the presiding judge insisted that Jang be remanded in prison. He was later granted bail in the sum of N100m bail with two sureties, one of which must be a first-class traditional ruler within the jurisdiction of the court. Jang however said that his brief stay in prison “has been a rare privilege by all standards of estimation, to be granted the opportunity to share the gospel of our Lord and Saviour to many souls I met in captivity.”
When the case eventually came up for hearing, the prosecutor, Mr. Rotimi Jacobs (SAN) asked Mr. Taiwo Olorunwoni, an investigator with the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) who testified before the court. Jacobs had sought to tender the written statement of Pam (the cashier) as evidence in court, but his move was objected to by the defence counsel, Mr. Mike Ozekhome (SAN), who argued that the statements were not voluntarily obtained as confirmed by Pam who told the court that he was pressured by the ICPC operatives to make the written statement.
After arguments, the prosecution and the defense counsel agreed for the court to proceed on trial-within-trial of the matter to ascertain if the statements were voluntarily obtained by the Commission.But in another move that political analysts considered as an error, Justice Longji cleverly avoided the trial-within-trial because all evidence available pointed to the fact that the statements were obtained under duress.
Jang supporters also alleged that on a certain day when Jang came to court and was waiting for another case that was ongoing before his, he was pressed and decided to go to the rest room. But Justice Longji, in a rather harsh tune, took on him and warned him sternly for doing that. Jang lawyers had to intervene, drawing His Lordship’s attention to the fact that the man was not yet docked before him. The judge later apologized for his unintended and uncontrolled outpour of anger. When the case was finally heard, and Jang’s lawyers filed for ‘no case submission’, Justice Longji turned it down and insisted that Jang had a case to answer particularly on the funds for Small and Medium Enterprises, given to the state by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), and that of the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB).
“I am guided by an age-long tradition not to give lengthy ruling in no-case submission and I am also not permitted to evaluate the evidence placed before the court. The prosecution has established that N2 billion CBN fund was released for small and medium enterprises development in the state after approval by the Central Bank of Nigeria. The money was never used for the purpose it was meant for. The respondent must be called upon to explain his action.
“The cashier is also discovered to have withdrawn large sums of government funds and must be called upon to explain what he did with the money. I cannot call upon the accused to enter into the witness box to explain because today is my last day in court before my retirement. I hereby return the case file to the Chief Judge of the state to assign the case file to another judge to continue with the trial.”
But faulting the judgement, Jang’s lawyers said, “In the ruling, there are 17 counts and the court was expected to state its position with regards to each of the counts but we didn’t hear that. The judge only read count one and said the prosecution has a case against the accused persons.
“We are not satisfied with that. There was no review of the submission by the first and second defendants but there was review of the submission of the prosecution; we were the one who made the initial submission of ‘No-case submission’ and we thought that will be mentioned and we are much convinced that based on the principles of law, that has to do with breach of trust.
“There is a central ingredient there that you must prove that there was dishonest misappropriation of that amount, even when you find out that the amount was entrusted to the defendants; the next question is you must answer is if they dishonestly misappropriated such money in their care, did they convert it to their personal use, that ingredient must be proved.
“The court didn’t say anything about that and certainly, we will have to appeal the ruling to hear what the Appeal Court will say about that.”
Jang’s supporters again faulted the position of Justice Longji, insisting that he was bent on sending Jang to jail. But as fate would have it, Justice Longji was due for retirement and the case had to be re-assigned.
The trial started all over, but this time, under Justice Christy Dabup. During the hearing, the trial within trial came up again, and it went against the EFCC and ICPC because all evidence pointed to the fact that the statements obtained from Yusuf Pam by the anti-graft agents were not voluntarily given. All the witnesses brought before the court by the EFCC did not link Jang to any of the alleged monies, neither was any of the monies traced to his personal account. There also seemed to be disparity in the amount claimed by the EFCC to have been misappropriated.
Delivering judgement on the case last Friday, the trial judge dismissed the charges against the accused on the ground that the prosecution failed to prove its case beyond all reasonable doubts. The judge said “there is no doubt that from the testimonies that Plateau state government applied and received N2 billion from CBN for the disbursement to Small and Medium scale Enterprises in the state. The ingredients of misappropriation, conversion and dishonestly too must be established concurrently.
“It is necessary that the prosecution proves that there is misappropriation and conversion and that the said sum converted was done dishonestly.
“To the mind of the court, the first defendant admitted borrowing the fund for outstanding budgetary requirements, a memo was raised, he was advised to borrow the fund to be refunded; it was not discernible that there was any dishonest intention.”The court does not find any evidence of dishonesty as to resolve the matter in favour of the prosecution. The prosecution has not discharged the burden of these counts to warrant the accused being found guilty as charged.”
Analysts observed that the EFCC did not do its home work properly before hurrying to the court, and that if it had done so, perhaps, it would not have had reason to go to court in the first place. They believe that the case will still fail at the Court of Appeal.
Reacting to the judgement, Jang said truth will always prevail over lies no matter how long it stays, describing his experience throughout the period of his trial as the prize of leadership.
He said, “I hold no grudge against anyone as I consider whatever I have gone through as the price I had to pay for choosing the path of leadership. I give God the glory for bringing me through and I call on all Plateau sons and daughters, including people of goodwill on the Plateau not to wish our leaders bad.
“Let us close ranks and speak with one voice so that Plateau will emerge out of its current state to take its rightful place of pride as the envy of other states. The Plateau we have always known and been proud of has taken backstage, but the onus is on us to reclaim our state and build it to the land of our dreams as was planned by our founding fathers and the generation of past leaderships.”
