The trial of former Governor of Plateau state, Senator Jonah David Jang continued on Thursday with the testimony of prosecuting witness two (PW2), Uchenna Innocent Igwe.
The Senator is being prosecuted alongside a formal cashier attached to the office of the Secretary to the state government, Yusuf Pam, by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for alleged criminal breach of trust and misappropriation of Plateau State funds to the tune of N6.3 billion.
The witness told Justice C. L. Dabup of Plateau State High Court, Jos, how Jang allegedly diverted Plateau’s N2 billion Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) fund to 19 accounts in five days.
Igwe, head of Jos branch of Zenith Bank from 2014 to 2015 was led in evidence by prosecution counsel, Rotimi Jacob (SAN).
He narrated how N2billion Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Fund (MSME), granted by the federal government through the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for provision of affordable credit to participants was diverted.
“My lord we have the Plateau State Project One Account and Plateau State Small and Medium Enterprises Development (PALSMEDEN) account. An inflow of N2 billion from Central Bank of Nigeria came into the Plateau State Project One Account and the inflow was for Small Scale and Medium Enterprises and immediately I saw the inflow in the Project One Account, I notified the commissioner of Finance and the state’s accountant-general that there was an inflow of N2 billion into the Project Account One, instead of the PALSMEDEN account. I notified them because they are the accounting officers of the state.”
“The PALSMEDEN account was supposed to house the money for the Small Scale and Medium Enterprises because that was the essence of the account, and was supposed to be disbursed in due course to the micro finance banks, and then to the end users.”
“The moment I notified them that the money was sent into the wrong account, they ordered us to transfer the money to the PALSMEDEN account. Immediately I got the instruction, we transferred the money to the PALSMEDEN account on March 20, 2015.”
Igwe, however disclosed that on March 25, 2015, the bank was asked to transfer the sum of N900,000 to the Ministry of Information, 50 million naira to Government House Administrator, N150 million to OSSG’s Cabinet Office, another N150 million to OSSG’s office, N400,000 to Plateau State Fire Service, additional N2 million to OSSG Cabinet Office, N3 million to OSSG Cabinet Office.
Others are N5 million to Government House Administrator, N8.3 million to Government House Administrator, N15 million to OSSG Cabinet Office, another N15 million to OSSG Cabinet Office, N26.25 million to the SSG account, N11 million to OSSG Cabinet Office, and N609 million to Plateau State Government Salary Account.
Igwe further said that the transfer continued in the same other in the month of April.
“My lord on April 1, 2015 we transferred N609 million to Project One Account from Plateau State Government Salary Account. On April 2, there was a transfer of N150 million to OSSG Project Office Account, and April 7, another transfer of N150 million to OSSG Office. On April 8, we again transferred N150 million to OSSG Cabinet Office and N11.474 million to Operation Rainbow and another N9 million to Operation Rainbow”.
The trial was however adjourned until February 16, 17 and 18, 2021 for further hearing and other witnesses to testify before the court.
