Atiku and Gana visit former Plateau State governor Jonah Jang being detained in Jos Prison

FORMER vice president Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and ex-information minister Professor Jerry Gana have paid a solidarity visit to the embattled Senator representing Plateau North Senatorial District Senator Jonah Jang currently being detained in Jos prison.

A former governor, Senator Jang is being detained at Jos after Justice Daniel Longji of the Plateau State High Court ordered he be remanded in custody after being arraigned by Economic Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) on a 12-count charge of corruption and misappropriation of N6.3bn . Among those who visited Senator Jang with Alhaji Atiku and Professor Gana  in prison included Chief Chris Giwa and other prominent members of his Peoples Democratic Party.

During the visit, most of the politicians donated money to the prison for the welfare of the inmates. White at the interdenominational church service in the prison chapel, Senator Jang was said to have prayed and preached to the congregation which had almost all the commissioners who were in his cabinet in attendance.

He was also said to have settled the backlog of electricity bills and fines for over 50 inmates in the prison. Senator Jang allegedly embezzled special funds released to the state by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), two months to the end of his tenure as governor in 2015.

He was specifically alleged to have pocketed N2bn released by the CBN for disbursement to small and medium scale enterprises in the state under the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Funds, just a month before the expiration of his tenure in April 2015. He was also said to have abused his office as governor by collecting money to the tune of N4.3bn from the state coffers through the cashier in the Office of the Secretary to the State Government, Yusuf Gyang Pam.