The Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission (EFCC) has told the Federal High Court in Lagos how former First
Lady Patience Jonathan got the $15.5million which she claims ownership of.
In its defence to her suit
challenging the freezing of her accounts, the commission argued that Mrs
Jonathan does not run any business from which she could have earned such huge
sums.
EFCC said its investigations
showed that the money was allegedly stolen from the Federal Government and its agencies,
and that it does not belong to the former First Lady.
“There is no way the plaintiff
(Mrs Jonathan) could have genuinely earned the monies. She is the wife of the
former president, a civil servant and a retired permanent secretary in Bayelsa
State.
“She does not run any profit and
interest yielding business venture to generate such money.
“Investigation conducted by the
first defendant (EFCC) revealed that the plaintiff is not the owner of the
funds in the accounts of the third to fifth defendants (companies), which funds
were discovered to be proceeds of fraudulent activities of Waripamo-Owei
Emmanuel Dudafa,” EFCC said.
Mrs Jonathan sued the EFCC, Skye
Bank Plc and three companies – Pluto Property and Investment Company Ltd,
Seagate Property Development and Investment Company Ltd and Trans Ocean
Property and Investment Company Ltd.
She is praying for an order
restraining the defendants from tampering with her funds in the companies’
accounts domiciled in Skye Bank.
She asked for an order of
interlocutory injunction restraining the EFCC from transferring the funds to
the Federal Government’s Treasury Single Account (TSA).
But, EFCC, in its statement of
defence, said its investigations revealed that between 2013 and 2015, “huge
sums of money were stolen from the Federal Government of Nigeria and its
agencies.”
The agencies, it said, were the
Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) and the office of
the National Security Adviser (ONSA), “etc”.
EFCC said some of the funds “were
converted to dollars and converted to the use of Dudafa”.
The commission said between
February 21, 2014 and April 19, 2016, Pluto Property “fraudulently received and
retained” $3,096,377.38.
The sum, EFCC said, was deposited
by State House domestic stewards, Festus Iyoha and Peter Arivin, “using
fictitious names on the instruction of Dudafa.”
The commission said between
November 14, 2013 and June 27, 2016, Seagate Properties received $3,624,998.78;
while Trans Ocean received $3,765,711.87, “which are suspected to be proceeds
of crime.”
Another company, Globus
Integrated Services Limited, was said to have received “a whopping sum of
$5,119,021.45” in its account.
EFCC said after it charged the
companies, their representatives pleaded guilty to retaining $15,591,700.
It insisted that after analysing
the companies’ accounts, “it is crystal clear that the plaintiff was neither a
director nor a shareholder”.
The commission said it was Dudafa
who allegedly procured the domestic stewards in the State House Abuja to
deposit the monies “in an attempt to disguise the proceeds of crime using
fictitious names”.
EFCC said it obtained a valid
court order to freeze the accounts, and that it did not need to inform Mrs
Jonathan before doing so “as the funds in the said accounts do not belong to
her”.
It added that the firmer First
Lady was not entitled to any reliefs, and that her case “is frivolous,
spurious, speculative, vexatious and an abuse of court process and should be
dismissed with substantial cost.”
Justice Mohammed Idris had
ordered parties to file pleadings in the case, indicating that witnesses,
including Mrs Jonathan, may testify to justify the money’s ownership.
The case will be heard on January
19.
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