Dame Patience
Jonathan, the wife of former President Goodluck Jonathan, may forfeit to the
Federal Government, a N10bn hotel allegedly belonging to her if she fails to
explain how she came about some funds allegedly traced to her accounts.
“This is one of the
questions she may have to answer as the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission continues investigation into the $20m found in five accounts she has
laid claim to,” a source told our correspondent on Monday.
The hotel, which is
known as Aridolf Resort Wellness and Spa, Yenagoa, was inaugurated by Patience
in April 2015, barely a month before the end of her husband’s tenure.
According to a UK
business newspaper, The Financial Times,
the hotel, which has imported state-of-the-art furniture, can compete with
other luxury hotels in developed countries.
The report dated
April 21, 2015, states in part, “The Aridolf Hotel in Yenagoa is an unlikely
monument to kitsch on a reclaimed swamp in Nigeria’s oil-producing Niger Delta.
In the lobby, Louis XIV furniture is accompanied by bowls of plastic fruit,
faux Dutch landscapes and a grotesquely gaudy chandelier. The hotel is redolent
of the riches on display in a region that for half a century has generated the
bulk of Nigeria’s wealth.
“The Aridolf, which
is owned by Patience Jonathan, wife of the former President, is symptomatic of
how superficial progress has been in addressing the festering sense of
marginalisation in the region, which remains desperately impoverished despite
benefiting from a tide of petrodollars in recent years.”
The Chairman,
Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption, Prof. Itse Sagay, told our
correspondent that the EFCC had the right to investigate anybody who was living
above his or her means.
He said anybody,
who failed to do so, could risk forfeiture of properties believed to have been
obtained through stolen funds or could lose funds traced to him or her.
Sagay, a Senior
Advocate of Nigeria, wondered how Patience, who was a civil servant and never
held any government position, could have billions in her bank accounts.
He said, “The EFCC
and ICPC Acts have provisions under which they can ask the court to freeze the
account of a person if a person’s capacity to earn is below the amount of money
that the person appears to have.
“If you are living
a lavish lifestyle and it appears you don’t have the means to have acquired the
property and the wealth you have, the EFCC is free to probe you.”
Patience recently
sued Skye Bank and the EFCC for freezing four company accounts which have a
balance of $15m.
The former first
lady also has another account with the title, ‘Patience Ibifaka Jonathan’ which
has a balance of $5m. The account is, however, still active.
It had reported that four of the accounts
belonged to 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.
The anti-graft
commission believed that a former Special Adviser to the President on Domestic
Affairs, Waripamowei Dudafa, forged the identities of his domestic servants to
open the four accounts while the fifth account was opened in the name of
Patience.
The domestic
servants were, however, denied access to the accounts while a platinum card was
issued to Patience.
The EFCC froze the
accounts of the four companies which were initially believed to be owned by
Dudafa until Patience stated last week that the four accounts belonged to her.
The EFCC is set to
arraign Dudafa and some bank officials for alleged fraud.
However, Mr. Joseph
Okobieme, the lawyer to Demola Bolodeoku, one of the bank officials, said his
client did not take part in forging the signatures of the domestic
servants/directors.
He said, “I don’t
know why he was included in the charge. He has no business in this transaction.
He was merely doing his job as a banker. The allegation they levelled against
him was not that he benefitted from the proceeds of the alleged transaction.
“There is a mere
allegation of forgery of certain documents which are not within his power to
have forged because he is not a director of the company.
“These four
companies were duly registered by the CAC (Corporate Affairs Commission) with
the names and the directors on record. So, if they say the names of these
directors were forged, it is not possible for my client to have forged them.
Clearly, he was not the author of the documents.”
He believed that
the four domestic servants should be charged by the EFCC as well.
Source:
Story by The Punch
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pictures by CKN News
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