Politics
Patience Jonathan, Dudafa linked to account with $15m opened in house boy, driver’s names
More revelations have emerged in the wake of $31.5m found in accounts traced to former First Lady, Patience Jonathan, as the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, said the names of a driver and a houseboy were used to open some of the accounts as directors.
According to sources at the EFCC, the accounts opened with Skye Bank, with companies such as 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, had a balance of $15m.
It would be recalled that Mrs Jonathan had sued Skye Bank and the EFCC, asking the Federal High Court to order the removal of the no-debit/freeze order on the accounts.
She also claimed to be the owner of the money in the accounts and that the accounts were opened on her behalf by a former presidential aide, Waripamowei Dudafa.
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However, a detective at the EFCC, revealed that Dudafa used his domestic servants’ names to open four of the accounts and then deposited the money into the accounts.
The detective said: “We were investigating Dudafa when we stumbled on those four companies’ domiciliary accounts opened at Skye Bank with a balance of about $15m. On further investigation, we were able to identify the directors of the companies.
“When we detained the directors, we found out that they were Dudafa’s domestic servants. One of them was a houseboy while another one was a driver. Their photographs were used in opening the accounts and their signatures were forged.
“We found out that these domestic servants were completely innocent because they had no access to the accounts. We have since released them. The sole signatory to the accounts was Patience Jonathan and she was issued with a special card, which is accepted worldwide. She has a separate account, which was opened in her name and has a balance of $5m.”
According to the detective, aside Dudafa, a lawyer Amajuoyi Briggs, who was said to have facilitated the transaction would also be arraigned for fraud.
By Timothy Enietan-Matthews…
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