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| Patience Jonathan |
The Federal High Court sitting in Lagos has granted an order temporarily freezing N350million allegedly traced to former first lady Patience Jonathan.
The order, granted by Justice Hadiza Rabiu-Shagari, followed an ex-parte application filed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
The anti-graft agency said the money is in an account domiciled in Stanbic IBTC. The EFCC said the money was allegedly transferred to a company’s account while Mrs Jonathan was serving as a Permanent Secretary in Bayelsa state between 2012 and 2013.
The commission alleged that the former first lady “unlawfully enriched” herself with the money. "Out of the alleged proceed of unlawful enrichment of Mrs Dame Patience Jonathan, the respondent transferred the total sum of N350million from its account in Diamond Bank to the account sought to be attached (Stanbic IBTC) in a desperate bid to dissipate the funds,” an investigating officer at EFCC, Musbahu Yahaya, said.
"We have traced the said N350million to the respondent’s (AM-PM Global Network’s) account sought to be attached and the order of this court is needed to instruct the bank to attach the account to prevent the dissipation of the funds.
"The respondent is making frantic effort to dissipate these funds.”Justice Hadiza granted “an order directing Manager of the Stanbic IBTC Bank to in the interim freeze the account pending the determination of the investigation and possible prosecution of this case.”
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