Alleged 6.3 Billion Fraud: My statement I Gave Which Indicted Jonah Jang, Was Taken Under Duress, Says Ex-Cashier

Yakubu Busari

The former cashier Plateau state Government house, Mr. Yusuf Gyang Pam has denied making incriminating statements to the Independent Corrupt and other related Offenses during cross-examination, as he said his written statements he did which indicated Jonah Jang was done under duress.

The former Cashier in the Office of the Secretary to State Government, Yusuf Gyang Pam told the court that his statement at the ICPC was done under duress, however, Justice Daniel Longji ordered for an adjournment to determine whether the statement from former Cashier indicting the former governor was obtained voluntarily.

Justice Longji said the trial within trial would be necessary in order to establish the fact of the purported statement written by the 2nd defendant – Yusuf Pam- to be tendered before the court by a witness, Mr. Taiwo Olorunyomi who served as an Investigator with the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences, (ICPC).

On the Tuesday sitting, Mr. Olorunyomi made a lot of revelation exposing mass withdrawal of Plateau state government funds by the former Governor Jonah David Jang through the government cashier, Mr. Yusuf Gyang Pam who is the 2nd defendant.

The statement has shown that N2 billion MSME was taken to Jang when withdrawn in cash by the 2nd defendant from Plateau state project account as a Classified Expenditure and through the investigation, it was seen that the N2 billion is still in the custody of Jang.

After giving his oral evidence on Wednesday, Mr. Olorunyomi to buttress his testimony intended to submit a statement written by the 2nd defendant that collaborates what he told the court.

But the 2nd defendant’s counsel, Sunny Odey objected the tendering of the statement by the EFCC’s witness, Mr. Olorunyomi, alleging that his client wrote the statement under duress.

The statement was given to Pam to confirm or deny the authenticity of the statement and he said, “It is my statement, but I wrote it under duress, I was threatened.”

Mr. Sunny Odey then urged the court to give them adequate time to prove that his client wrote the statement under duress.

Justice Longji said for a fair hearing and for the law to take its course he adjourned the case to 25th and 26th April 2019 for trial within the trial.

The trial was to ascertain whether the statement which the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission,  ICPC, obtained from the former Cashier of the state Government House, Mr. Yusuf Pam, over N6.3 bn charges were voluntary.

Following the extensive argument, Justice Daniel Longji gave in his ruling that ICPC operatives didn’t use guns or weapons to pressure Mr. Pam to make written statements during the investigation.

Pam is standing trial at the state High Court alongside the former Governor of the State in a 12-count charge brought against them by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission which bordered on alleged corruption and misappropriation of the state funds amounting to over N6 bn.

The EFCC is accusing Sen Jang, who served as Plateau governor between 2007 and 2015, misappropriates the funds, after the exist of his administration in 2015, among others

When the case came up for hearing on Wednesday, the prosecutor, Mr. Rotimi Jacobs, SAN, had called the 8th witness, Mr Taiwo Olorunwoni ,an Investigator with the ICPC ,who testified before the court how  N2billion belonging to the Plateau State Medium and Small Scale Enterprise Agency and another N3 billion of the state Universal Basic Education Board  were indiscriminately  withdrawn by  the  Cashier and taken to the former Governor.

Justice Daniel Longji, therefore, adjourned the case for a trial-within-trial to  the twenty-fifth and twenty-sixth April 2019.