The immediate past governor of
Plateau State and Senator representing Plateau North, Jonah Jang has stated
that his being in prison is divinely ordained, stressing that nobody should
boast of sending him to prison.
Jang stated this is a goodwill
message through his former Commissioner of Information and Communication Yiljap
Abraham, at the ongoing 94th General Church Council of Church of Christ in
Nations (COCIN) in Jos, the Plateau state capital.
Yiljap, who read out Senator
Jang’s message, said, “For me being in the prison is a great lesson in
humility, when I was at the EFCC Abuja I slept on the floor, but here in the
prison I have the privilege of sleeping in the same bed that former President
Olusegun Obasanjo slept when in Jos Prison”.
Jang and one Yusuf Pam are to
appear before a Jos High Court on Thursday (May 24, 2018) as they seek bail
over an alleged fraud case filed against them by the Economic and Financial
Crimes Commission (EFCC) said to have been committed while the former was
governor.
The anti-graft agency had filed a
12-count charge against Jang and Pam, which include misappropriation of monies
disbursed by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) meant for prospective
beneficiaries of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise Development Fund (MSMEDF),
dishonestly diverting and misappropriating “certain property” summing up to
various amount of money.
The said offences, according to
the charges, are punishable under section 309 of the Penal Code Law of Northern
Nigeria applicable to Plateau State.
It would be recalled that a Jos
High Court had ordered that the two aforementioned persons be remanded at the
Jos Prison, pending the determination of their bail application on Thursday,
24th, May, 2018.
Meanwhile, speaking shortly after
Jang’s message, Governor Simon Lalong said himself was at one point a visitor
to the prison and had spent 40 days during which he received a lot of
revelations from God.
Lalong said, “Before I became the
Governor of Plateau State, as a Speaker of the State House of Assembly then I
also slept for 40 days in the prison, and when I was there I received a lot of
revelations and by that time I was ready to face the allegations against me and
I was clear at the end of the day”.
“Now as a Governor I know when I
vacate the office there will be a time for me to account for my stewardship,
but when somebody refused to humble himself to accept his imperfection, then
the law takes it over”.
The Governor urged the church
leadership to pray for his administration as well as unite the state to stand
for justice, saying he views the church leaders as partners in the formulation
of policies of government.
However, it was gathered that the
former governor had paid fines for about fifty inmates and led the prayer
session in the prison during last Sunday’s church service.
He has also helped the prison
authority to settle backlog of electricity bills they were owing the distribution
company, a situation that has made electricity available in the facility.