The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has commenced the probe of former Plateau State governor, Jonah Jang, over his inability to account for some money belonging to the state.
It was gathered that the Plateau State government, had in a petition to the EFCC, said it discovered financial discrepancies after studying the handover notes left by Jang.
A source in the EFCC said the petition to the commission, indicated that “Under Jonah Jang as governor of Plateau State N2 billion was released by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for the Small and Medium Scale(SME) businesses in Plateau State. The N2 billion was released to Jang in April of 2015, a month before the expiration of his administration. The entire money disappeared. And there’s no trace or evidence that SMEs in Plateau State benefitted from the CBN fund meant for them.
“The administration of former Governor Jonah Jang got N6.1 billion from the accounts of the State Universal Basic Education Board(SUBEB), Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises(MSMEs) and the ministry for Local government and Chieftaincy Affairs.”
The government, in the petition, further alleged that Jang collected N982,526451.02 from the Plateau State government using a front company Darmatist Consult for a purported, non-existent recovery of N7.56 billion from Nassarawa State. The money was paid to Darmatist as consultancy fee.
“Under Jang, millions of naira was debited monthly from the accounts of the 17 Local Government Areas in Plateau State. Jang claimed that the debited funds will be used to construct one 5Km road in each of the 17 LGAs.
“But most of the roads were never constructed. Just a few LGAs in Jang’s Plateau North Senatorial District benefited from this scheme but the funds had disappeared from the State accounts before the emergence of the new administration of Simon Lalong.”
The source added: “Questions are also being raised on how SURE-P funds were disbursed by the Jang administration. As a matter of fact, Jang, in his handover notes, did not provide the needed information on how much was released, how much was received and what the funds were used for.”
