Senate panel orders immediate re-opening of Patience Jonathan’s accounts

Wife of former President Goodluck Jonathan, Mrs. Patience Jonathan, on Wednesday, got a reprieve, when the Senate committee investigating the petitions against the freezing of her accounts, directed that they should be re-opened immediately.

The Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions committee after subjecting the management of four commercial banks to serious drilling, directed that banks where the first lady had accounts, be reopened since they were not encumbered by any legal process.

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Presided over by Senator Sam Anyanwu, the committee observed that some of the accounts were frozen based on some administrative lapses. One of the accounts which is with the Stanbic IBTC Bank, according to the committee, had not breached any known law or due process.

The account with the Zenith Bank according to the committee must be re-opened because the court order which directed that it should be frozen had been vacated by another court order..

The committee members were particularly displeased with what they called arbitrary manner in which the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) used the banks to close the accounts without complying with due process or the rule of law.

After listening to the committee, bank executives present, informed the committee that the court order vacating the earlier ones relied upon by the EFCC to close the accounts were not made available to them.

Accordingly, they promised to re-open those accounts having been informed of the vacation order. ‎The committee expressed shock that the banks could rely on ordinary letter by the EFCC anticipating a favourable ruling to free customers’ accounts.

 

 

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