Dame
Patience Jonathan, the wife of former President Goodluck Jonathan, said she was
using her $15m, which was frozen in four companies’ accounts, to settle medical
bills while she was out of the country.
She,
therefore, urged the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and Skye Bank to
lift the restriction on the accounts.
Patience
said this in a letter with reference number GA/Abibo/00226/2016, written by her
lawyers, Granville Abibo (SAN) and Co, which was addressed to the Acting
Chairman of the EFCC, Mr. Ibrahim Magu.
It was
gathered that
the four accounts belonged to the following companies: Pluto Property and
Investment Company Limited, Seagate Property Development and Investment Company
Limited, Trans Ocean Property and Investment Company Limited and Globus
Integrated Service Limited.
A
houseboy, a driver and other domestic workers of a former Special Adviser on
Domestic Affairs to Jonathan, Waripamowei Dudafa, were named as directors, but
Patience’s $15m was lodged in the accounts and she was given a platinum card
and exclusive access to the accounts.
The
letter read in part, “It is noteworthy to emphasise that the said accounts,
which were in US dollar denomination, were card-based accounts and our client
is the sole signatory to these accounts.
“However,
our client has been operating the said accounts using the cards for her medical
bill payments and purchases for her private purposes without any let or
hindrance.
“Our
client was therefore surprised when the said cards stop functioning on July 7,
2016, or thereabout. Our client immediately, thereupon, contacted Skye Bank Plc
through our solicitors.
‘‘It
was only then that the bank officials informed our client that the said
accounts were placed on a ‘No Debit Order’ following investigations and instruction
from your commission and this is without notice to our client by either the
bank or the commission.
“It
is in the light of the foregoing that we urge you to use your good offices to
vacate the ‘No Debit/Freezing Order’ placed on the said accounts.”
Patience,
who described herself as a law-abiding citizen, said despite all the
explanations she offered to the Lagos Zonal Office of the EFCC, the detectives
in charge refused to heed her request.
She,
therefore, urged Magu to intervene immediately.
She
added, “Despite the foregoing, our client, who is a law-abiding citizen, has
watched with surprise how efforts are being made surreptitiously to indirectly
harass or harangue her and short-change her of her personal funds in breach of
her fundamental human rights.
“We
urge you sir, to kindly intervene to stop the untoward and wrongful actions of
your officials to embarrass, inconvenience and short-change our client.”
However,
a detective in the EFCC said, “We got a relevant court order to freeze those accounts
and we have evidence which we will present in court on Friday.
“We
did not know that the accounts belonged to Patience Jonathan at the time we
froze them. The accounts do not bear her name neither do they carry her BVN
(Bank Verification Number). So, how can she accuse us of harassment?
“She
has a separate account in Skye Bank with the title ‘Patience Jonathan’, which
has a balance of $5m. If she claims she needs money for medical treatment, then
the $5m should be alright.”
In
a thanksgiving service held at the State House chapel in Abuja on February 18,
2013, Patience had said she underwent seven surgical operations within one
month in Germany, adding that the doctors had given up hope on her survival.
She
had stated, “I remember when Chief Obasanjo was the President of the
country, I was close to his late wife, Stella. We worshiped together in this
chapel. It was a painful moment for me that time when she (Stella) died and her
corpse was brought here.
“That
was how my corpse would have been brought here.
‘‘It
was not an easy experience for me. I actually died, I passed out for more than
a week. My intestine and tummy were opened.
“I
am not Lazarus but my experience was similar to his. My doctors said all hope
was lost.’’
Source:The Punch
Tags
Society