EFCC Commence Investigation on Jonah Jang

Indications have emerged that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has commenced the investigation of the former Plateau State Governor, Jonah Jang, for his inability to account for some funds running into billions of naira belonging to the state.

The Plateau state government in a petition to the EFCC, said it discovered financial discrepancies after studying the handover notes left by Jang.

A source to <em> Thisday gave the details of what the commission is looking for, saying: “Under Jonah Jang as governor of the 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 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.

“Jang collected N982, 526451.02 from the state government using a front company Darmatist Consult for a purported, non-existent recovery of N7.56 billion from Nasarawa 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 five-kilometre road in each of the 17 local government areas. But most of the roads were never constructed. Just a few local government areas 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.

“Also being investigated by the crimes commission is the suspicious double award of the computerisation of the Ministry of Finance to a Nix Technologies for the sum of N97,925,000 by the Ministry of Finance. Nix Technologies is believed to be a front company, and the contract was awarded twice and the money paid twice to them for same contract.”