BID TO SEIZE $8.4M, N7.35BN: Patience Jonathan triumphs over EFCC

Wife of former President Goodluck Jonathan, Patience, has floored the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in the court battle involving the erstwhile First Lady’s $8.4 million and N7.35 billion, which the commission had sought to confiscate.

This came as the Federal High Court in Lagos on Friday sacked an application by the EFCC seeking to seize the funds in 15 bank accounts linked to Mrs. Jonathan, where the funds are domiciled.

The anti-graft agency had prayed the court for the forfeiture of the $8,435,788.84 and over N7.35 billion.

But in her ruling, Justice Mojisola Olatoregun trashed the ex parte application filed by the EFCC for the seizure of the funds. She held that the funds were already subject of litigation before two other judges.

Before now, former domestic aide to Goodluck Jonathan, Waripamo-Owei Dudafa, had told the court when he appeared as Mrs. Jonathan’s first witness in the matter that the $15.5 million seized from the former First Lady by the anti-graft agency was her legitimate money.

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He had also denied that the fund was proceeds of fraud, explaining that part of the money was Patience’s “personal inheritance and money which she held in trust for her siblings, as well as gifts from friends and well-wishers over the years.”

 

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