The Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission has traced an additional $5m to the Skye Bank
account of Dame Patience Jonathan, the wife of former President Goodluck
Jonathan.
This brings to $20m the total amount so far
traced to the former first lady.
As part of investigations into a money
laundering case against a former Special Adviser on Domestic Affairs to
ex-President Jonathan, Waripamowei Dudafa, the EFCC had traced four company
accounts to him with a balance of $15m.
The EFCC subsequently charged Dudafa and the four companies
with money laundering.
The four companies,
whose accounts have since been frozen, are 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 source at the EFCC said, “While we were
investigating Dudafa, we traced the four companies to him. The companies have
domiciliary accounts at Skye Bank with a balance of about $15m. So, we obtained
a court order and froze the accounts.
“We then traced the directors of the companies
who then denied ownership of the accounts. It was later that we were informed
that the accounts belonged to Patience Jonathan and that she is the sole
signatory to the accounts. She was given a special card which she used in
making withdrawals across the world.
“We, therefore, wondered why the accounts were
not opened in her name if she had nothing to hide. In fact, we later found out
that her personal account, which bears her name, has a balance of $5m. One
wonders where a person, who has never held a government position, got the money
from. She was not our initial target but she certainly has questions to
answer.”
Jonathan’s wife has, however, sued Skye Bank
for freezing her bank accounts and giving the EFCC vital information about her
finances.
Patience filed a N200m fundamental rights
enforcement suit against Skye Bank Plc.
One Sammie Somiari, who deposed to an affidavit
on behalf of Patience, claimed that the EFCC placed a No Debit Order on the
four accounts in July, in the course of probing Dudafa.
The EFCC has now filed an amended 17 counts
against Dudafa and seven others, including the four companies, wherein the
suspects were accused of conspiring to conceal $15,591,700, which the EFCC
claimed they ought to have known formed part of proceeds of an unlawful act.
Somiari said in the affidavit filed on behalf
of Patience, who is said to be away for an urgent medical treatment abroad,
that it was Dudafa who helped Patience open the four bank accounts which the
EFCC froze.
According to him, Dudafa had on March 22, 2010
brought two Skye Bank officers, Demola Bolodeoku and Dipo Oshodi, to meet
Patience at home to open five accounts.
The deponent claimed that Patience was the sole
signatory to the accounts.
He, however, claimed that after the five
accounts were opened, Patience later discovered that Dudafa opened only one of
the accounts in her name, while the other four were opened in the names of
companies belonging to Dudafa.
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