Former President Goodluck Jonathan’s wife Patience has accused the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) of victimizing her.
She urged
President Muhammadu Buhari to call EFCC Chairman Ibrahim Magu to order. A
statement by her spokesperson Belema Meshack-Hart accused Magu of trying to
destroy her family. She alleged that she was being investigated for her role in
the 2015 election and for supporting her husband. “We believe that she is being
systematically persecuted and punished because of her unflinching support for
her husband during the 2015 elections,” the statement said.
It added: “One
thing is clear: No matter what they do to Mrs. Jonathan, she will continue to
stand by her husband, the father of her children, even if it means paying the
supreme price with her life.” Mrs. Jonathan is being investigated by the EFCC
for allegations of fraud and money laundering running into billions of naira. In
April, the High Court in Lagos ordered the temporary forfeiture of $5.8 million
and N2.4 billion in her accounts, which she is contesting. The anti-graft
agency has also linked several properties at home and abroad to Mrs. Jonathan,
many of them at various stages of investigation.
Mrs. Jonathan
said: “President Muhammadu Buhari should be reminded that his wife also
supported him in all the elections he contested against her husband, former
President Jonathan, but Dr. Jonathan did not at any point in time carry out
personal vendetta or go after Buhari’s wife. “That is the standard practice in
all democracies around the world. For instance, Michelle Obama campaigned
vigorously for her husband’s party during their last Presidential election, but
we are yet to see President Donald Trump move against her. One thing is clear:
No matter what they do to Mrs. Jonathan, she will continue to stand by her
husband, the father of her children, even if it means paying the supreme price
with her life,” she said.
She
accused Magu of desecrating the image of the Presidency, saying “it would be
good to bring him back to the path of sanity and reason”. Mrs. Jonathan
described herself as the most vilified first lady in the history of Nigeria. She said it had gotten to the extent where all
the “magnificent edifices in Abuja, Yenagoa or Port Harcourt” were linked to
her. The statement also reads:”We wish to place it on record that in the
history of this country, no wife of any President had been so far investigated
in such flagrantly vindictive and disgraceful manner, as has been the fate of
Mrs. Jonathan, in the hands of Magu’s EFCC.” “As a tradition, every first lady
in this country has had one pet project or the other, with which they sought to
intervene in the lives of the less privileged. Mrs. Jonathan started her NGO in
Bayelsa State 11 years ago when her husband was the Governor of the State.
“With it, she has,
over the years, touched the lives of many Nigerians in different ways. It is
then surprising that while other First ladies and their pet projects were left
alone, it is only her activities and that of her NGOs that are being subjected
to indefinite probe and microscopic scrutiny by the Buhari administration. “In
a method that clearly bears out the axiom of giving a dog a bad name in order
to hang it, Magu’s EFCC had maliciously linked Mrs. Jonathan to all kinds of
fake possessions and properties around the country, including the Local Content
Office in Yenagoa which is an arm of NNPC, Shoprite Complex, Nigerian Customs
Guest House and Park View Hotel, both in Port Harcourt, as well as the
residence of her neighbour who is a serving senator.
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