Justice Daniel Longji of the Plateau State High Court, Jos has admitted the confessional statement made by a former Plateau State governor, Mr Jang to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC in the course of investigating allegations that he diverted to personal use about N6.2billion state fund shortly before the end of his tenure.
Mr Jang is facing a 12-count charge alongside Yusuf Pam, a former cashier in the Office of the Secretary to the State Government.
At the resumed hearing, July 23, 2019 counsel for the EFCC, Rotimi Jacobs, SAN presented Jang’s statement to the Court through the 11th prosecution witness, Musa Sunday.
In his evidence-in-chief, Sunday, an EFCC investigator told the Court that “in carrying out my duties as a detective, I interviewed Mr Jang and obtained statements from him”.
The statement was thereafter identified by him and tendered by Jacobs as evidence against Jang.
Counsel for Jang, Benson Igbanoi, raised no objections and Justice Longji subsequently admitted it in evidence and marked it as Exhibits P59 – P61.
Sunday also told the court that the EFCC’s investigation of Jang was necessitated by a petition received from the Civil Society Against Corruption, on June 9, 2014.
Copies of the said petition and the supporting documents substantiating the allegation were identified by Sunday, as Jacobs sought to tender them in evidence against Jang.
However, Igbanoi raised objections arguing that “the documents tendered to be public documents need to be certified”.
Countering his argument, Jacobs emphasised that the documents were addressed to the EFCC and “therefore, EFCC has powers to tender them being in possession of the original, which is valid in the Court of Law”.
Consequently, the trial judge overruled the objection, noting that: “an investigating officer is a special witness and has the rights to tender documents in line with his submissions.”