BY CHAMBERLAIN ODEY, JOS – Legal experts have accused the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) of tardiness and lack of professionalism in its bid to keep the former Plateau State governor, Senator Jonah Jang in confinement indefinitely.
They argued that the moves to perfect its ploy against Senator became evident on Monday, May 12, 2018 with the Commission excusing itself and applying for time when the case was mentioned before Justice Daniel Longji of the Plateau State High Court 5 in Jos.
At the resumed advocacy before the Court, Jang’s legal team, led by Chief Robert Clarke (SAN), was on hand to engage the anti-graft agency and argue its bail application for their client.
Though the matter was mentioned first among the cases listed at the instance of the court and counsel to Senator Jang, it was stood down for some time to enable the EFCC lawyer make his appearance.
Eventually, when the EFCC’s counsel, Chief Rotimi Jacobs (SAN), arrived and the matter was again mentioned, he pleaded that the Commission could not produce the detained Senator in court due to “logistical” reasons.
He therefore applied for more time to enable the anti-graft agency articulate and consolidate its grounds of claims into a formal charge against the former governor.
However, after considering the EFCC’s plea, Justice Longji granted the application for adjournment. It was therefore agreed and entered in the records that the matter is adjourned to Wednesday, May I6, 2018, for the prosecution to produce the defendant in court and also bring up formal charges against him.
Answering questions from newsmen after the court session, Chief Jacobs (SAN), counsel to the EFCC, told anxious journalists, who sought to know what he meant by “logistical” reasons that “you know, it is logistical”.
Some lawyers, who spoke to our correspondent described the event in court as ‘disappointing and embarrassing’ to the defence, noting that it was obvious the anti-graft agency has not filed charges against Jang before the court.
According to their submission, the Commission may have shown appearance just to forestall any backlash and chastisement on the breach of fundamental human rights instituted against it by Senator Jang.
Meanwhile, news of the former governor’s arraignment spread in most parts of Jos, attracting a crowd of supporters and well-wishers, who throng the Court premises, chanting pro-Jang slogans, like ‘free Jang now’.
Visible among the crowd of supporters in solidarity with the embattled Senator was members of the legal community within and outside the state, who braved all odds to be at the Court.
Another independent group that also protested at the court premises, described Senator Jang as ‘a hero’, and the EFCC as a ‘political witch-dog being used to blackmail Jang’ because of 2019.
A leader of the group, Joshua Adeyemi, who dismissed the notion that he was getting involved in a non-Yoruba affair, told Forefront that the arrest and undue detention of Senator Jang is not just a Plateau State issue, but a “national
affair”.
Also, two former speakers of the Plateau State House of Assembly, Hon Emmanuel Goar and Hon Titus Alams who were part of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)’s family at the court, expressed confidence in the integrity of Senator Jang, and frowned at EFCC’s attitude as a politically conjectured delay.
Goar however expressed relief at the new hearing date for the case, saying their support for the former governor remains unflinching.
For Alams, who is the immediate past Speaker of the PLHA, and coordinator of PDP Patriots towards the party’s rebirth and refurbishment to recapture power in 2019, the Party and its entire followership is standing with Senator Jang, especially given the vexed and vexatious circumstances of his detention and trial.
In his comments, State PDP chairman, Hon Damishi Sango, said they believe in Jang, noting that support for the former governor will remain massive and all encompassing during the next appearance in court.
He said the traducers of Senator Jang have only succeeded in raising the Senator’s political profile and national approval rating.
Also reacting to the case, an aide to the Senator, Clinton Garuba, in a statement said though today is the eight day since the undue incarceration, the Senator has refused to break down as he is in high spirit, and called on the EFCC to prove its claims and integrity by producing him in court on Wednesday, May 16, 2018.
