BY CHAMBERLAIN ODEY, JOS – A principal witness of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Uchenna Igwe, in a corrupt enrichment case against former governor of Plateau State, Senator Jonah Hang, on Tuesday told a Jos High Court that the disputed N2 billion Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise (MSME) fund, was not paid into the defendant’s account.
Igwe, a Senior Manager with Zenith Bank, was the Branch Manager of the Beach Road branch of the bank in Jos when the said money was paid.
He said that though the money was meant to be paid into the Plateau State Small and Medium Enterprise Development Agency (PLASMEDA) by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), it was paid into Plateau Project account.
During interrogation by the Defense Counsel, Mr. Robert Clarke, the witness said, “When I noticed it, I immediately notified the state Commissioner of Finance and Accountant General of the State. An instruction was raised by the Accountant general to move it into PLASMEDA account, and I complied on the 20th of March, 2015.
“Another instruction came from the same Accountant General to the effect that the money be moved back to the Plateau Project account on the 24th of March, 2015, and that was done,” the witness said.
Igwe further explained that, thereafter, the money was disbursed in tranches into various accounts including state’s Central Salary Account, Office of the Secretary to the State Government (OSSG), Government House Administration account, and the Plateau State House of Assembly Account, noting that no money was paid into the personal account of the 1st accused, Senator Jonah David Jang.
Igwe also said that before the N2 billion was paid into the Plateau Project Account, the balance in the account was N839,398,474.39, adding that with the N2 billion, the account balance was raised to N2,839,398,474.39.
Earlier, another EFCC witness, Dr. Mudashiru Olaitan, who is the Director, Development Finance Department of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), represented by the EFCC Counsel, Mr. Rotimi Jacobs (SAN), said two accounts were provided to the CBN; Plateau State Project Account and PLASMEDA account, but added that it chose to pay into the Plateau State Project Account on the instruction of the Governor, being the Chief Financial officer of the state, even though there was a counter letter by the General manager of PLASMEDA instructing the CBN to pay the N2 billion into PLASMEDA account.
Olaitan said the CBN had to write to the state government when its monitoring team observed that the N2 billion was not disbursed to the end users.
The communications between the CBN, Zenith Bank and the State Government were tendered as exhibits before the court and the Judge admitted them in evidence and were marked exhibit P1 to P22
Olaitan said though he was sure that the money was not disbursed for MSME purpose for which it was meant, he was not sure of what the state government diverted the fund for.
Justice Longji, having listened to the witnesses, the prosecution and defense counsels described the court section as interesting, and adjourned to Wednesday for continuation of hearing.
