Lalong to prosecute Jang if indicted by judicial commission -Attorney General

The immediate past governor of Plateau state and Senator
representing Plateau North constituency at the National Assembly,
Jonah Jang, may face prosecution if the report of the Judicial
Commission of Inquiry (JCI) recently submitted to Governor Simon
Lalong by the Commission has any indictable information against the
former’s administration from May 29, 2007 to May 29, 2015, the
state Attorney General, Hon. Jonathan Mafuyau, has said.

Lalong had in August 2016, inaugurated a commission of inquiry
headed by Justice Stephen Adah, to dig into the activities of
Jang’s administration, however, the commission in December 2016,
completed its assignment and submitted reports to Lalong, who
promised to release and implement a white paper on it.

The development spurred Jang to file a suit seeking an
injunction to restrain Lalong from releasing the white paper, but
consequently, Jang lost the suit for lack of merit.

Speaking to our correspondent at the weekend, the state Attorney
General and Commissioner for Justice, said Lalong can now go ahead
to release the much waited white paper on the findings of the
Judicial Commission of Inquiry.

His words, “with the ruling of the court on the matter, the
state government is now at liberty to release the white paper in
fulfillment of its promise to the people of the state.

“We will come up with a position on the findings of the JCI,
meaning that we must come up with a ‘white paper’ and if the
findings indicts the former Governor, government will not hesitate
to prosecute him.

“We will not be hasty in our decision, but will devote time to
study the report now before us and then come up with the most
appropriate decision on this matter; yes, we know the people’s
expectation at this point, but we must also weigh our decisions on
the provisions of our criminal laws and if there are areas where
persons ought to be prosecuted we will have no hesitation in
prosecuting them and those that need to go through the civil
process, to refund whatever that is refundable to government.

“You can agree with us that this government, from the beginning,
took time to appeal to the previous administration to return all
that has been carted away from the state’s treasury, even before
the JCI was set up, but they took us for granted and now we have
followed the legal procedure to get to justice”, he said.

The immediate past governor of Plateau state and Senator
representing Plateau North constituency at the National Assembly,
Jonah Jang, may face prosecution if the report of the Judicial
Commission of Inquiry (JCI) recently submitted to Governor Simon
Lalong by the Commission has any indictable information against the
former’s administration from May 29, 2007 to May 29, 2015, the
state Attorney General, Hon. Jonathan Mafuyau, has said.

Lalong had in August 2016, inaugurated a commission of inquiry
headed by Justice Stephen Adah, to dig into the activities of
Jang’s administration, however, the commission in December 2016,
completed its assignment and submitted reports to Lalong, who
promised to release and implement a white paper on it.

The development spurred Jang to file a suit seeking an
injunction to restrain Lalong from releasing the white paper, but
consequently, Jang lost the suit for lack of merit.

Speaking to our correspondent at the weekend, the state Attorney
General and Commissioner for Justice, said Lalong can now go ahead
to release the much waited white paper on the findings of the
Judicial Commission of Inquiry.

His words, “with the ruling of the court on the matter, the
state government is now at liberty to release the white paper in
fulfillment of its promise to the people of the state.

“We will come up with a position on the findings of the JCI,
meaning that we must come up with a ‘white paper’ and if the
findings indicts the former Governor, government will not hesitate
to prosecute him.

“We will not be hasty in our decision, but will devote time to
study the report now before us and then come up with the most
appropriate decision on this matter; yes, we know the people’s
expectation at this point, but we must also weigh our decisions on
the provisions of our criminal laws and if there are areas where
persons ought to be prosecuted we will have no hesitation in
prosecuting them and those that need to go through the civil
process, to refund whatever that is refundable to government.

“You can agree with us that this government, from the beginning,
took time to appeal to the previous administration to return all
that has been carted away from the state’s treasury, even before
the JCI was set up, but they took us for granted and now we have
followed the legal procedure to get to justice”, he said.