Friday, 17 November 2017

Patience Jonathan asks court to unfreeze her 16 bank accounts



     
  Wife of former President Goodluck Jonathan, Patience, has asked the Federal High Court in Abuja to vacate the interim forfeiture order it granted to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on May 30, to freeze her 16 separate bank accounts containing aggregate sums of $5.8 million and N3.5 billion.

   Patience Jonathan, through her team of lawyers led by Chief I.A. Adedipe, SAN, and Chief Mike Ozekhome, SAN, maintained that the court order had elapsed and could not be extended by the EFCC.

   She told the court that the anti-graft agency obtained the forfeiture order by an improper use of the judicial process. The 16 frozen bank accounts belong to 10 different organizations that were allegedly linked to Patience Jonathan. In a six–paragraph affidavit deposed to by one Chinedu Maduba, Mrs. Jonathan and the firms admitted their ownership of the 16 bank accounts.
  
     They alleged that EFCC suppressed the fact that it had earlier approached the Lagos division of the court for the same relief it applied for and secured from the court in Abuja. While five of the frozen accounts are domiciled in Skye Bank Plc with seven of them in Diamond Bank Plc, the remaining accounts are with Union Bank Plc, First Bank Plc, Ecobank and Zenith Bank Plc.

   Meantime, in a swift reaction, EFCC has also approached the court for an extension of the forfeiture order against funds in the 16 bank accounts.
EFCC lawyer, Mr. Richard Dauda, also applied for the extension application to be heard first before the application by Patience Jonathan and the firms.
Justice Binta Nyako has fixed November 23 to hear the two applications.

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