Dame Patience Jonathan,
the wife of former President Goodluck Jonathan, said she was using her
$15m, which was frozen in four companies’ accounts, to settle medical
bills while she was out of the country.
She, therefore, urged the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and Skye Bank to lift the restriction on the accounts.
Patience
said this in a letter with reference number GA/Abibo/00226/2016,
written by her lawyers, Granville Abibo (SAN) and Co, which was
addressed to the Acting Chairman of the EFCC, Mr. Ibrahim Magu.
The PUNCH
had reported that the four accounts belonged to the following
companies: 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.
A
houseboy, a driver and other domestic workers of a former Special
Adviser on Domestic Affairs to Jonathan, Waripamowei Dudafa, were named
as directors, but Patience’s $15m was lodged in the accounts and she was
given a platinum card and exclusive access to the accounts.
The
letter read in part, “It is noteworthy to emphasise that the said
accounts, which were in US dollar denomination, were card-based accounts
and our client is the sole signatory to these accounts.
“However,
our client has been operating the said accounts using the cards for her
medical bill payments and purchases for her private purposes without
any let or hindrance.
“Our
client was therefore surprised when the said cards stop functioning on
July 7, 2016, or thereabout. Our client immediately, thereupon,
contacted Skye Bank Plc through our solicitors.
‘‘It
was only then that the bank officials informed our client that the said
accounts were placed on a ‘No Debit Order’ following investigations and
instruction from your commission and this is without notice to our
client by either the bank or the commission.
“It is
in the light of the foregoing that we urge you to use your good offices
to vacate the ‘No Debit/Freezing Order’ placed on the said accounts.”
Patience,
who described herself as a law-abiding citizen, said despite all the
explanations she offered to the Lagos Zonal Office of the EFCC, the
detectives in charge refused to heed her request.
She, therefore, urged Magu to intervene immediately.
She
added, “Despite the foregoing, our client, who is a law-abiding citizen,
has watched with surprise how efforts are being made surreptitiously to
indirectly harass or harangue her and short-change her of her personal
funds in breach of her fundamental human rights.
“We
urge you sir, to kindly intervene to stop the untoward and wrongful
actions of your officials to embarrass, inconvenience and short-change
our client.”
However,
a detective in the EFCC said, “We got a relevant court order to freeze
those accounts and we have evidence which we will present in court on
Friday.
“We
did not know that the accounts belonged to Patience Jonathan at the time
we froze them. The accounts do not bear her name neither do they carry
her BVN (Bank Verification Number). So, how can she accuse us of
harassment?
“She
has a separate account in Skye Bank with the title ‘Patience Jonathan’,
which has a balance of $5m. If she claims she needs money for medical
treatment, then the $5m should be alright.”