Court Issues Fresh Order Of Interim Forfeiture Of Patience Jonathan $5.8m
Twenty-four hours after it withdrew an application seeking to prevent
former first lady, Mrs. Patience Jonathan from accessing her Skye bank
Plc account containing $5,842,316.66, the Economic and Financial
Crimes Commission (EFCC) yesterday obtained a fresh court order
re-freezing the account.
The EFCC secure the order of interim forfeiture of the money from the
same judge, Justice Mojisola Olatoregun, who had earlier on April 16,
2017 vacated a similar order on the ground that Mrs. Jonathan was not
a party in the suit leading to order made by the court.
However, in its new application, the anti-graft agency seemed to have
corrected the technical error as the name of the former first lady was
listed on the exparte application as a party.
In the new application the EFCC asked the court to temporary forfeit
the money to the Federal Government pending the determination of the
motion on notice.
While moving the ex parte application on Wednesday, counsel to the
EFCC Mr Rotimi Oyedepo urged the court to grant the order as prayed.
In an affidavit attached to the motion and deposed to by one Musbahu
Abubakar, the EFCC alleged that it received an intelligence report
that funds suspected to be proceeds of crime were warehoused in a Skye
bank account in the name of Jonathan.
According to the commission, the said report was analysed and found
worthy of investigation adding that the ex First Lady opened the
account on Feb. 7. 2013.
The Commission also claimed that several cash deposits were made by
the ex First Lady in United States Dollars, through a former special
assistant on Domestic Affairs to ex President Goodluck Jonathan,
Waripamo Dudafa,.
The anti-graft agency further averred that another frequent depositor
of funds into the said account was one Festus Iyoha, who it said was a
steward of the State House Abuja.
The EFCC said that between Feb. 8 2013 and Jan. 30 2015, the sum of
about 6.7 million dollars, suspected to be proceeds of crime, was
deposited into the account.
According to the commission Jonathan had dissipated the funds, leaving
a balance of about 5.7 million dollars.
The commission therefor avers that if the funds are not forfeited in
the interim, it may be fully dissipated by Jonathan.
The EFCC also asked the court to make an order directing the
publication in any National Newspaper, of the said order, to enable
any interested party to appear and show why the interim order should
not be made final.
In a similar development, Oyedepo also obtained an order of temporary
forfeiture of the sum of N2.4 billion discovered in an Ecobank account
in the name of La wari Furniture and Bath Ltd, which sum is reasonably
suspected to be proceeds of crime.
The EFCC had told Justice Olatoregun that the sum of N2.03 billion,
reasonably suspected to be proceeds of crime is currently on fixed
deposit in the account of La wari Furniture, plus a credit balance of
about N389 million.
The commission urged the court to grant the application in the
interest of justice.
Justice Olatoregun, apart from granting the order has also fixed May
15, to enable any interested party to appear and show why the interim
order should not be made final.
