The
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has summoned some officials of the
Department of State Services, who were attached to Dame Patience Jonathan, the
wife of former President Goodluck Jonathan, for interrogation.
It
was learnt on Friday that the invitation was part of investigations into the
$15m frozen in four company accounts, which Patience had laid claim to.
Sources
in the EFCC said that a letter had been written to the DSS, requesting that the
officials be allowed to honour the anti-graft agency’s invitation.
A
detective said that the commission had evidence that the DSS officials had, on
several occasions, deposited money into some of the accounts in Skye Bank
between 2013 and 2015.
The
source said, “The $15m, which we have frozen in the four company accounts was
not paid into the accounts at once. The money was paid into the accounts over a
two-year period.
“However,
we have evidence that it was DSS officials attached to Jonathan’s wife that
deposited the money. We have gathered bank documents and we have invited them
for interrogation.”
When
asked why Patience had not been invited by the EFCC, even after she had openly
laid claim to the money and dared the anti-graft agency to invite her for
questioning, another source told our correspondent that it was because the
commission was trying to build a solid case.
The
source said, “We will not like to exchange words with her on the pages of
newspapers. She says the money belongs to her but she has no evidence to show
that she owns the money except the fact that she was given platinum cards to
use in withdrawing money.
“Possessing
an ATM card of an account that does not bear your name, signature or
credentials does not give you the legal right over that account. We froze the
accounts as part of investigations into a money laundering case.
“We
are still investigating and we may invite her based on the outcome of
investigations. We are still trying to build a solid case.”
The
EFCC had stumbled on four company bank accounts in Skye Bank while
investigating a former Special Adviser to Jonathan on Domestic Affairs,
Waripamowei Dudafa.
The
names of the four companies are: 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 joint balance of the accounts, as of the time it was frozen, was said to be
$15, 591,700.
The
four companies standing trial before a Federal High Court in Lagos have since
pleaded guilty to money laundering.
Jonathan’s
wife has, however, accused the EFCC of hiring mercenaries as directors of the
company in an attempt to steal her hard-earned money.
Patience,
who has sued Skye Bank for N200m, also has another account under the name
‘Patience Ibifaka Jonathan’ in the bank, which had a balance of $5m. The
account was, however, not frozen by the commission.
In
the suit filed by Patience, while laying claim to the $15m, which is the subject
of prosecution of Dudafa and others, one Sammie Somiari, who deposed to an
affidavit on behalf of Patience, claimed that Dudafa helped Patience to open
the bank accounts in 2010.
According
to him, Dudafa had on March 22, 2010, brought two Skye Bank officials to meet
Patience at home to open five accounts.
The
deponent claimed that Patience was the sole signatory to the accounts.
He,
however, claimed that after the five accounts were opened, Patience later
discovered that Dudafa opened only one of the accounts in her name while the
other four were opened in the names of companies belonging to Dudafa.
Source:The Punch
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