$5m Scandal: EFCC Freezes Patience Jonathan’s Sky Bank Account

[caption id="attachment_11988" align="alignnone" width="600"]Patience Jonathan[/caption]

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on Wednesday, froze the Skye Bank account of the wife of the former President Goodluck Jonathan.

The personal account, titled ‘Patience Ibifaka Jonathan’, has been under investigation by the anti-graft agency following the discovery of the sum of a balance of $5 million in the account.

Recall that the EFCC uncovered four companies’ accounts, in Skye Bank with a balance of $15,591,700, which the first lady claimed to own.

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The four companies 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 detective at the EFCC who spoke to The Punch on the condition of anonymity said, “Recall that we had frozen the four companies’ accounts, which Patience Jonathan later laid claim to. We have been able to establish that the money was part of proceeds of crime.

“She had no evidence that the money in the four accounts belonged to her. All she had were platinum debit cards, which she was using to withdraw money and the cards are not evidence of ownership.

“Initially, we had traced $5m to her personal account, which we did not touch but I can confirm to you now that the $5m account, bearing Patience Jonathan’s name, has also been seized since she claimed that the monies in the company accounts and the one in her personal name all emanated from the same source.

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“We are tracing other accounts belonging to Patience. It will interest you to know that despite all the letters she has written, she has never stated where she got the money from. She claimed to be a housewife and yet she has $20m.”

Recall also that Patience recently wrote a letter to the acting Chairman of the EFCC, Mr. Ibrahim Magu, saying that the said money for her medical treatment abroad.

“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 of these accounts.

“The said bank officials also assured our client that they will change the account names accordingly and issue to our client new credit cards for the said accounts which was not done despite repeated demands.

“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.

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“Our client was therefore surprised when the said cards stopped 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 instructions 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,” she said.

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