A Plateau State High Court, sitting in Jos has admitted the confessional statement made by a former Plateau State governor, Jonah Jang to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, that he diverted about N6.2 billion state fund to personal use shortly before the end of his tenure.
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Jang who is facing a 12- count charge along with Yusuf Pam, a former cashier in the state reportedly made the confession in the course of investigation into the alleged official corruption by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.
EFCC spokesman, Tony Orilade said this in a statement in Abuja.
He explained that at the resumed hearing, July 23, counsel for the EFCC, Rotimi Jacobs, SAN, presented Jang’s statement to the Court through the 11th prosecution witness, Musa Sunday.
Orilade added, “In his evidence-in-chief, Sunday, an EFCC investigator told the Court, “in carrying out my duties as a detective, I interviewed Jang and obtained statements from him”.
“The statement was thereafter identified by him and tendered by Jacobs as evidence against Jang.
“Counsel for Jang, Benson Igbanoi, raised no objections and Justice Longji subsequently admitted it in evidence and marked it as Exhibits P59 – P61.
“Sunday also told the Court that the EFCC’s investigation of Jang was necessitated by a petition received from the Civil Society Against Corruption, on June 9, 2014.
“Copies of the said petition and the supporting documents substantiating the allegation were identified by Sunday, as Jacobs sought to tender them in evidence against Jang”.
But Igbanoi, it was learnt, raised objections arguing that the tendered documents as a public document needed to be certified.
Opposing his argument, Jacobs emphasised that the documents were addressed to the EFCC and that EFCC has powers to tender them being in possession of the original, which is valid in the Court of Law.
Consequently, the trial judge overruled the objection, noting that: “an investigating officer is a special witness and has the rights to tender documents in line with his submissions.”
In his ruling, the trial Justice Daniel Longji admitted the documents and marked them as exhibit 54 and exhibit 55.
Other admitted documents are Exhibits P56, P57 and P58, the account statements of Jang with Zenith Bank, FCMB and Standard Chartered Bank, which indicated suspicious transactions from the Plateau State account with Zenith Bank into Plateau Project One, withdrawn by Pam, upon approval by Jang.
Discrete investigations also revealed that the funds, which were approved for the State Universal Basic Education, SUBEB, were never so utilised, with teachers’ salaries pending for more than 10 months.
Besides, Forensic analysis of the accounts also showed cash lodgements of $10,000, sometimes more than $100,000 daily. The lodgements were found to have been made by Pam and Jang’s first son, Yakubu.
Additional documents included letters from Plateau State House of Assembly, Attorney General and Central Bank of Nigeria, were also tendered through the witness as evidence.
But the defence counsel raised objection on the grounds of fair hearing on additional evidence and direct or personal interest.
In response, Jacobs reportedly said that the fundamental issue “is to establish whether the maker of the said documents have any personal interest in the matter”.
Citing Section 212 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, ACJA 2015, he argued that “artificial evidences can be received in addition to previous ones tendered”.
However, Justice Longji reserved ruling on the admissibility of the additional documents till July 24.
The trial judge also ruled that a trial within trial will commence on July 24, after counseling for Pam, D.P. Dusu, raised objection to the admissibility of the confessional statement he made to Sunday in the course of investigations.
Dusu argued that his client made the statements “under duress, suffering trauma psychologically”.
In his words, “I am interested to know in details what the defendant meant by duress and psychological damage while rendering a statement in the custody of EFCC,” the trial judge queried.
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