EFCC violating my rights, by calling me corrupt when no court has declared so –Mrs Jonathan

The Ibrahim Magu-led Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has been dragged to court by the wife of former President Goodluck Jonathan, Patience, for alleged harassment and violation of her human rights..

In a suit she instituted before the Federal High Court Abuja, Mrs. Jonathan demanded N2 billion as general damages/compensation for the violation of her fundamental rights.

She is asking the court to declare that the constant harassment meted out to her by the EFCC through negative media publications, denigrating and degrading her person as corrupt, without any invitation by the anti-graft agency, trial or conviction by a court of competent jurisdiction, amounts to gross violation of her rights under Section 37 of the 1999 Constitution.

More so, she is praying the court for “A declaration that indiscriminate freezing of her bank accounts and those of her relatives by the EFCC under the guise of investigation of proceeds of crime, without any invitation or interrogation by the respondent is a violation of her rights to own property and to fair hearing guaranteed under Sections 44 and 36(1) of the 1999 Constitution.

“A declaration that the invasion, breaking into and ransacking of the applicant’s family property by the agents of the respondent in the absence of the applicant or any member of her family, while purporting to be executing a search warrant is a violation of the applicant’s fundamental human rights to private and family life guaranteed under the provisions of Section 37 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended).

“A declaration that the incessant harassment of the applicant by the respondent on the ground of her political views expressed by reason of her being a member of the opposition party in Nigeria, is a violation of the applicant’s fundamental human right to freedom from discrimination, guaranteed under Section 42 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended).

“An order of court restraining the respondent, whether by itself, its agents, privies or any person acting on its behalf from further violating the applicant’s fundamental rights adumbrated above”.

The suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/586/2017, was supported by a 21-paragraph affidavit dated June 30 and deposed to by one Sammie Somiari. The affidavit disclosed that the applicant had on January 4, 2017, directed her lawyers to file a rights enforcement suit at the Federal High Court Port-Harcourt, marked FHC/PH/FHR/17/2017 against the EFCC.

Mrs. Jonathan further explained to the court that though parties had joined issues in the suit, that the EFCC refused to stop the violation of her fundamental rights and have invaded and sealed up some of her properties in Abuja, one of them, a property belonging to her Non-Governmental Organisation.
Sequel to the EFCC non-stop violation of her rights, especially with respect to the properties in Abuja, she said that she instructed her lawyers to withdraw suit no FHC/PH/FHR/17/2017, pending in Port-Harcourt and file the instant suit.

The former First Lady narrated that before her husband ventured into politics around 1998 that she had a private business she was managing. She added that between 1999 and 2015, when her husband became the deputy governor of Bayelsa State till he emerged President of Nigeria, she never stopped running her private businesses despite the fact that she was at various times the first lady of Bayelsa State and that of Nigeria.

Mrs. Jonathan said that during her husband’s days in office as the President, between 2012 and 2013, that she had health challenges which required her going abroad for treatment and later surgeries.
“Because of the challenges of having to travel with substantial cash for her medical treatment and the need not to contravene the Nigerian Law or any other law on money laundering, she sought for opinion of the then Acting Chairman of the EFCC, Mr Ibrahim Lamorde, who advised her to obtain credit cards from her banks.

“It was based on the advice of Lamorde, that Mrs Jonathan invited her banks and informed them of her desire to obtain credit cards.

“That on the 22nd of March, 2013, she opened 5 different accounts in Skye Bank Plc and credit cards were issued in respect of the said accounts.

“On one of her medical trips abroad, her Debit Visa Card with Skye Bank Plc stopped functioning as she could not pay her medical bills with the said card. Upon her return to Nigeria, she made enquiries through Skye Bank as to what happened to her Debit Card.

“That her enquiries revealed that it was the Respondent (the EFCC) that placed a No Debit Order on the said account and four others”.

Read also: As Magu maintains defiance against House over Mrs Jonathan, Reps order his arrest

According to her, the EFCC later told her lawyers that the accounts were subject of money laundering investigations. The applicant told the court that EFCC, in its determined bid to “make life unbearable for her”, applied and secured an order from Justice Binta Nyako of the high court, freezing not only her accounts, but also the ones belonging to her late mother, Mama Sisi Charity Oba.

“The kRespondent has demonstrated a pathological dislike for the Applicant as the activities of the operatives of the Respondent overlook the fact that the Applicant was never a political office holder. The investigation into the operations of her pet project, NGO when she was first lady is an unprecedented act of animosity against her as none of her project was funded by the government at any level”, the affidavit further read.

She said until the EFCC is restrained by the court, that it would continue to harass her.

The suit was anchored on Order 2 Rule 1 of the Fundamental Rights Enforcement Procedure Rules 2009 and Sections 34(1), 36(1), 37, 42 and 44 of 1999 Constitution as amended and has been assigned to Justice John Tsoho who has fixed November 16 for hearing the matter.

 

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