Jos clergyman Bishop Katung accused of defrauding cooperative gets bail extended

JOS clergyman the bishop of the Maranatha Church Jonas Katung has had his bail extended by the high court in the ongoing legal case in which he is standing trial over allegations that he defrauded customers of the defunct Covenant Fadama Cooperative Society.

 

Bishop Katung the managing director of Dadin Kowa Micro Finance Bank, Irmiya Jatau, were arraigned before Justice M H Kurya by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for defrauding hundreds of customers of the institution to the tune of N11.5bn. He was first granted bail on December 9, 2015 during which the EFCC filed 24 counts of corruption against the duo in the court.

 

Mr Jatau, the bank’s managing director, the cleric, one Okewole Dayo as well as the micro-finance bank were accused of defrauding over 64,000 customers of the society of the said amount. At that resumed hearing of the case, the accused persons asked the court to grant them bail, premising their argument on the fact that Bishop Katung had earlier been granted bail on the same charges

 

However, the prosecution team said the bail application, earlier granted to Bishop Katung, did not include Mr Jatau since no charge was preferred against him as of the time the bishop’s bail application succeeded. According to the EFCC, the charges against the bank’s chief were filed two days ago but Mr Jatau's counsel argued that the bail granted to the first accused person should also apply to the banker since he was one of the co-accused persons in the entire case.

 

In his judgement, the presiding judge ruled that the bank managing director be remanded in prison pending when his bail application was filed and heard by the court. He then extended the bail earlier granted the cleric and adjourned the case to March 7 for further hearing.