Politics
All EFCC actions against you are lawful, court tells Patience Jonathan
Wife of former President Goodluck Jonathan, Patience, has been told that every action being meted out to her by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) are lawful.
This was the ruling of the Federal High Court in Abuja, presided over by Justice John Tsoho on Tuesday.
The ruling came following the former First Lady’s fundamental human rights enforcement suit filed against the EFCC, accusing the anti-graft agency of violating her various rights.
In the suit which was filed on June 30 , 2017, Mrs. Jonathan among other things accused the EFCC of harrassing her over the political views she held in 2015.
She accused EFCC of malicious invasion of houses linked to her and obtaining interim forfeiture orders against accounts and houses belonging to her, her non-government organisation and her family members.
She had therefore prayed the court to order the EFCC to pay her N2 billion as damages for infringing on her fundamental human rights.
But in his judgment, Justice Tsoho dismissed her prayer and held that none of her complaints against the EFCC was sustainable .
According to the trial judge, none of Patience’s rights, including rights to fair hearing, own property, family life, dignity of human person, and freedom from discrimination, was violated by the actions of the EFCC in the commission’s probing of her bank accounts and properties linked to her and her relatives.
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Justice Tsoho further ruled that the former First Lady having failed to prove her allegations against the commission, was not entitled to any of the six prayers , including N2 billion damages, sought in the suit.
Justice Tsoho again said that Patience’s suit was weakened by the fact that the EFCC claimed that its investigations were ongoing.
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