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 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.”
In a thanksgiving service held at the
State House chapel in Abuja on February 18, 2013, Patience had said she
underwent seven surgical operations within one month in Germany, adding
that the doctors had given up hope on her survival.
She had stated, “I remember when Chief
Obasanjo was the President of the country, I was close to his late wife,
Stella. We worshiped together in this chapel. It was a painful moment
for me that time when she (Stella) died and her corpse was brought here.
“That was how my corpse would have been brought here.
‘‘It was not an easy experience for me. I actually died, I passed out for more than a week. My intestine and tummy were opened.
“I am not Lazarus but my experience was similar to his. My doctors said all hope was lost.’’
Punch
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