$15m Scandal: Patience Jonathan wants the EFCC to pay her N200m for damages

A Federal High Court in Lagos has fixed December 7, 2016 to hear the N200m fundamental rights enforcement suit filed by wife of ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, Patience, against the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and Skye Bank Plc to challenge the freezing of four bank accounts containing $15m.

The EFCC placed a ‘No Debit Order’ on the four accounts opened in the name of four companies which were linked to a former Special Adviser on Domestic Affairs to ex-President Jonathan, Waripamo-Owei Dudafa.

The EFCC froze the four bank accounts on July 7, 2016 in the course of investigating Dudafa for money laundering.

But Patience had sued the EFCC and Skye Bank claiming the ownership of the $15m found in the four bank accounts.

The matter came up for the first time before Justice Babs Kuewumi on Wednesday.

At the hearing, Patience’s lawyer, Mr. Granville Abibo (SAN), applied to discontinue the earlier motion filed by his client for the purpose of amending it.

Justice Kuewumi granted the application and struck out the motion.

Abibo then informed the court that he had filed and served a new motion on the defendants.

But the EFCC lawyer, Rotimi Oyedepo, said the suit was not ripe for hearing.

Abibo then urged the court to restrain the EFCC from tampering with the $15m in the frozen accounts pending the determination of the suit.

He said despite being served with court processes, the EFCC was still making moves that could overreach the court.

But Oyedepo urged the court to discountenance Abibo’s submission, saying that the accounts had long been frozen before Patience filed the suit and so the issue of interference with the accounts did not arise.

After listening to the parties, Justice Kuewumi adjourned till December 7, 2016 for the hearing of the case.

Patience is urging the court to compel the EFCC to immediately remove the ‘No Debit Order’ placed on the four bank accounts in question.

She also wants the court to order Skye Bank to pay her damages in the sum of N200m for what she termed a violation of  her right to own personal property under Section 44 of the 1999 Constitution.

Filed in support of the suit was an affidavit deposed to by one Sammie Somiari.

Somiari said it was Dudafa who helped Patience to open the four bank accounts which the EFCC froze.

According to him, Dudafa had on March 22, 2010 brought two Skye Bank officers, Demola Bolodeoku and Dipo Oshodi, to meet Patience at home to open five accounts.

He, however, claimed that after the five accounts were opened, Patience later discovered that Dudafa opened only one of the accounts in her name while the other four were opened in the names of companies belonging to Dudafa.

The four companies, whose accounts have now been frozen and which have also been charged with money laundering along with Dudafa, are Pluto Property and Investment Company Limited; Seagate Property Development & Investment Co. Limited; Trans Ocean Property and Investment Company Limited; and Avalon Global Property Development Company Limited.

How I made $15m – Patience Jonathan

 

Wife of former Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan, Patience Jonathan, has explained in details how she accumulated in 15 years  $15million in several bank accounts linked to her by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.

The explanation was given in court papers  filed by a group that has sued  Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP)  on her behalf.

SERAP had filed a suit in court to compel the attorney-general of the Federation to take a legal action against Mrs. Jonathan.

Union of Niger Delta Youth Organisation for Equity, Justice and Good Governance suing for themselves and on behalf of Mrs Dame Patience Jonathan filed a suit number FHC/L/CS/1349/2016 before a Federal High Court in Lagos,  alleging  “campaign of calumny  by SERAP against her.

The funds in question were legitimate gifts from her friends and well-wishers over the last 15 years which she had been saving in order to utilise to upgrade family businesses and concerns which had been somewhat dormant by reason of the long period of her husband service as a public officer in Nigeria.”
“The gifts were given in small contributions by several persons some of whom she cannot even now recall over this period of 15 years sometimes in as small a gift as N250,000. In order to preserve the value of these funds which she did not require for any purpose at the time she changed them into foreign exchange and kept them as cash for a long period in her home safe in Port Harcourt and Abuja.”

“It was when the family home in Otuoke was burnt down by hoodlums under the instigation of political adversaries in 2010 that she began to think about banking these gifts which had now grown to large sums in United States Dollars. In 2010 she therefore summoned one of her husband’s domestic aides, Waripamo-Owei Emmanuel Dudafa to assist her in opening bank accounts into which the funds could be deposited.”

“Unknown to her the said Dudafa in a bid to be discreet about the owner of the funds decided to bank the funds in the names of companies owned by him. When she discovered this she was constrained to continue with the names of the companies when she was advised that it did not make any difference as to the ownership of the funds since the director of the company would appoint her as sole signatory to the accounts in question.”
“When in 2016 Dudafa was arrested and detained she had no fear for the funds as she realised that the funds could not be attributable to him once it was discovered that she was the sole signatory to the said accounts. It was therefore a rude shock to her when she discovered that a no transaction order had been placed on the accounts by the EFCC in the belief that the funds belonged to Dudafa.”

“She instructed her solicitors to further write to the EFCC to inform them that the funds belong to her and that they formed a part of her legitimate earnings over the last 15 years. It was this letter that was leaked by the EFCC to the media that became sensationalised and led to the plaintiff’s vilification and attack by ignorant persons who had no information about the matter.”
“SERAP is playing to the public gallery in order to gain the notoriety it has achieved over the past years. SERAP has done this mostly by intervening in high profile issues without regard to the rights of persons it claims to protect. SERAP jumped into the fray of ignorant accusations being made against Mrs Dame Patience Jonathan in the public media and has begun a campaign of calumny against her using online, print and electronic media to publish to the public unfounded and malicious allegations that she stole the funds in question and ought to be prosecuted.”

The suit accuses SERAP  of  using online, print and electronic media to publish to the public unfounded and malicious allegations that she stole $15m (US) and ought to be prosecuted.

SERAP executive director Adetokunbo Mumuni said the organisation received Patience Jonathan’s  court papers dated 6th October 2016 from a bailiff on Tuesday.

Mumuni said,

“SERAP categorically rejects these misleading and entirely unfounded accusations against us by Mrs Patience Jonathan and her group, and we will vigorously oppose the suit in court. SERAP will never, in the discharge of its mandates, succumb to any intimidation, harassment and attacks in any way, shape or form. We are now consulting with our lawyers and will be preparing shortly our defence in court.”
“At no time did SERAP suggest or even hint that Mrs Jonathan was guilty of the allegations against her. On the contrary, what SERAP has said is that the fact that the $15m found in the four accounts belong to Mrs Jonathan raises serious suspicion or at the very least a prima-facie case of unexplained wealth/illicit enrichment, and imposes an obligation on Mrs Jonathan to explain and justify the source(s) of the $15m.”

The Nigerian Tribune

Ijaw Youths say EFCC harassing Patience Jonathan, ignoring wives of Abacha, Yar’Adua

Ijaw youths on Thursday accused the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, of carrying out a planned witch-hunt against former President Goodluck Jonathan and his wife, Patience.
The EFCC, a few days ago, freezed accounts traced to Patience Jonathan in Skye Bank.
The youths under the aegis of the Ijaw Youth Council, IYC, Worldwide, said that Jonathan’s wife like most former First Ladies made her money from gifts and gratifications, insisting that there was no law against such gestures.
Speaking in Yenagoa, the President of IYC, Mr. Udens Eradiri, stated that: “First Ladies in Nigeria do not do any work. A woman naturally attracts a lot of gifts from men let alone a First Lady who has the power to recommend you for something.
“They receive a lot of thank you and gratifications because most cases they recommend people who come back to thank them. Even when they do not recommend, people go and say good morning with a million dollar. It did not start with Patience Jonathan.
“We know how influential the former First Lady of this country and other First Ladies were. We know how powerful, rich and wealthy they are and the property they acquired as a result of gratification.
“If you say Patience should show how she made her money, you must start with all the First Ladies, otherwise, it is a witch-hunt. Patience Jonathan got her wealth from thank you and there is nowhere in the law that says we should not receive thank you.
“So, EFCC should stop this nonsense. If you have issues, go and follow the due process and don’t begin to use the media to tarnish the image of the former first family”.
“Jonathan should be respected in Nigeria. You heard what happened during the time of late President Yar’Adua, Jonathan did not witch-hunt that family irrespective of the humiliation he suffered despite the position of the law.
“This is a witch-hunt and the EFCC must stop this attitude because very soon, people will begin to resist them. Nigerians will get to the point where they will no longer accept it.
“We support the fight against corruption. All of us know that corruption has eaten deep into our fabric, but this selective fight especially geared towards the region must not be allowed”, Eradir said.
He lamented that despite the corruption traced to the former late Head of State, Gen. Sani Abacha and his family, the government still approved a university for his wife.
“It is in this country that they talked about Abacha’s loot, yet a university had been approved for Abacha’s wife. In this same country where they said Abacha was corrupt. So, why are you treating one former first family differently and then everybody wants to humiliate Jonathan’s family in the best of their ability.
“The former First Lady, Patience, has no question to answer. The EFCC is destroying Buhari’s anti-graft policy because when your anti-graft is beginning to show it is one-sided, it will lose credibility,” he said.
The IYC boss further asked the EFCC to to return about N23bn, $100million and other assets it seized from the former Governor of the state, late Diepreye Alamieyeseigha.
“Bayelsa State funds are in their hands, they have not returned it. Why are they keeping the funds? Are they meant to keep funds that they recovered. Why is the money not being paid into TSA if EFCC believes they are proceeds of corruption. They should return our money. Those are the issues they should focus on”, he said.

“I thought that the EFCC by now will begin to face squarely its job of ensuring that criminals are brought to book and not the media charade that is usually its modus operandi.
“They have not learnt from the Tompolo incident. Instead of focusing on facts and doing their jobs via due process, they quickly went to the media and that incident led this country to where we are today.”

Patience Jonathan may lose ‘her’ $15 million to Nigeria as affected companies plead guilty to money laundering

There was a momentary hush inside the courtroom after a representative of  Pluto Property and Investment Company Limited, the first of the four companies involved in a $26 million money laundering case linked to former First Lady, Patience Jonathan, abruptly pleaded guilty before the judge.

The representatives of the other three companies – Sea Gate Property Development and Investment Company Limited; Trans Ocean Property and Investment Company Limited; and Avalon Global Property Development Company Limited – followed suit and pleaded guilty before Justice Babivision of the Federal High Court.

Waripamo Dudafa, who served as Special Adviser on Domestic Affairs to former President Goodluck Jonathan; Amajuoyi Briggs, a former presidential aide; and Adedamola Bolodeoku, a former Skye Bank official, who were arraigned alongside the companies, however, pleaded not guilty.

The judge adjourned till September 27th for trial.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission arraigned the suspects on a 15-count amended charge of money laundering, stealing, and forgery totalling $15.5 million before Mr. Kuewumi.

According to the EFCC, the offences were committed between November 2013 and May 2015.

In Count 1, the suspects were accused of conspiring to launder $15.5 million “on or about the 13th of November 2013.”

Counts 2 – 9 accused them of stealing of various sums ranging from $250,000 to $1.2 million. 

Counts 10 – 15 said Messrs Dudafa, Briggs, Bolodeoku, and one Sompre Omiebi (who is still at large) forged documents to open accounts in Skye Bank and Wema Bank in the name of the listed companies.

During their investigations, the EFCC had frozen the accounts.

But last week, Mrs. Jonathan filed a fundamental rights enforcement suit before the court claiming ownership of the money found in the companies’ accounts, asking that the ‘no-debit’ order placed on them be lifted.

In an affidavit deposed to by one Sammie Somiari, a lawyer, Mrs. Jonathan said she asked Mr. Dudafa to assist her to open the bank accounts which the EFCC had frozen.

The former First Lady said the monies were meant for her medical treatment.

‘Joint trial’

Before the pleas were read, the first three defendants’ lawyers argued that the four companies’ representatives – who did not have legal counsels – ought to provide a letter from their respective companies authorizing them to appear before the judge.

“Anybody can be called upon from the street to come and represent a company,” said Tochukwu Onyiuke, counsel to the second defendant, Mr. Briggs.

Gboyega Oyewole, counsel to Mr. Dudafa, said the defendants were in a joint trial.

“It cannot be severed,” he said.

“Whatever plea pleaded by the defendants will tell on the companies. Worst case scenario, my Lord will discountenance them and enter a not guilty plea for them.”

But Rotimi Oyedepo, counsel to the EFCC, argued that the representatives were listed as directors in the companies’ Corporate Affairs Commission registration records.

“If they (defence counsels) are objecting to their plea being taken, it is extremely immature to bring it up at this stage, it is after their plea had been taken,” said Mr. Oyedepo.

“If they want us to show that the persons appearing the court are listed in the CAC as directors, we have the proof.”

After the plea was read, the judge granted Messrs Briggs and Bolodeoku bail in the sum of N250 million each, with two sureties.

The judge refused to allow Mr. Dudafa to continue on a bail granted him in another trial before a different judge, remanding him in prison and insisting that his lawyer must file a bail application before his court.

Jiti Ogunye, a Lagos based lawyer, told PREMIUM TIMES that the implication of the companies’ representatives pleading guilty means the money found in the bank accounts would be forfeited to the Nigerian government.

“The companies’ representatives cannot be sent to prison because they are not charged as individuals,” Mr. Ogunye said.

“The company that pleaded guilty, of course, cannot be made to serve custodial punishment. But is it very instructive that they pleaded guilty realizing that it doesn’t make any sense of them to deny such an obvious guilt on their part.”

As the case continues, it is not clear how much Mrs. Jonathan can do to prove the money truly belongs and be returned to her and not forfeited to the government.

Former First Lady Patience Jonathan claims $15m Frozen in her bank accounts are for medical bills, personal expenses

Former first lady, Patience Jonathan, has written a letter to the EFCC explaining how $15 million entered her account. In a letter with reference number GA/Abibo/00226/2016, written by her lawyers, Granville Abibo (SAN) and Co, and addressed to the Acting Chairman of the EFCC, Ibrahim Magu, the former first lady said the $15 million which has been seized by the antigraft agency, was for her medical bills and other personal expenses, according to Sahara Reporters...

"It is noteworthy to emphasise that the said accounts, which were in US dollar denomination, were card-based accounts and our client is the sole signatory to these accounts. However, our client has been operating the said accounts using the cards for her medical bill payments and purchases for her private purposes without any let or hindrance. Our client was therefore surprised when the said cards stop functioning on July 7, 2016, or thereabout. Our client immediately, thereupon, contacted Skye Bank Plc through our solicitors. It was only then that the bank officials informed our client that the said accounts were placed on a ‘No Debit Order’ following investigations and instruction from your commission and this is without notice to our client by either the bank or the commission. It is in the light of the foregoing that we urge you to use your good offices to vacate the ‘No Debit/Freezing Order’ placed on the said accounts.”

Patience in the letter stated that the operatives of the antigraft agency have refused to acknowledge her explanation

“Despite the foregoing, our client, who is a law-abiding citizen, has watched with surprise how efforts are being made surreptitiously to indirectly harass or harangue her and short-change her of her personal funds in breach of her fundamental human rights. We urge you sir, to kindly intervene to stop the untoward and wrongful actions of your officials to embarrass, inconvenience and short-change our client.”the letter said

Patience Jonathan during her husband's time in office had seven surgeries within a month for an undisclosed ailment in Germany. During a thanksgiving service in February 2013, she revealed that she lost consciousness for ‎a week during one of her surgeries.

Patience Jonathan’s cash: Houseboy, driver’s names used to open $15m accounts

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has arrested four domestic servants, including a driver and a houseboy, whose names were used to open bank accounts for Mrs Dame Patience Jonathan, the wife of former President Goodluck Jonathan.

Sources within the anti-graft agency said on Sunday that the companies’ accounts were opened at Skye Bank.

The companies are 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.

The four companies’ accounts, which have since been frozen by the EFCC, have a balance of about $15m while another account, which bears Patience Jonathan’s name, has $5m.

Mr. Sammie Somiari, who deposed to an affidavit on behalf of the ex-President’s wife, said the former First Lady was the owner of the money in the accounts.

She had revealed that she gave millions of dollars to the then Special Adviser to the President on Domestic Affairs, Waripamowei Dudafa, to open accounts for her.

Somiari, however, claimed that Dudafa opened five accounts for Patience and that only one of the accounts was in her name, while the other four were opened in the names of companies belonging to Dudafa.

A detective at the EFCC, however, revealed that Dudafa used his domestic servants’ names to open the four other accounts and then deposited the money into the accounts.

The operative added, “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.”

The detective said a lawyer, Amajuoyi Briggs, who allegedly helped Dudafa to perpetrate the fraud, would also be arraigned.

It was learnt that two Skye Bank executives, Demola Bolodeoku and Dipo Oshodi, who helped Dudafa to open the accounts on March 22, 2010, were also being investigated.

The detective added, “This is a clear case of fraud and there is no way the bank officials will say they did not know what was going on. They are under investigation and those found culpable will be arraigned.”

The EFCC operative said he could not immediately confirm if the transaction was reported to the Nigeria Financial Intelligence Unit.

He explained that the commission had discovered a trend which politicians used in laundering and concealing funds, saying it was becoming more rampant due to the operation of the Bank Verification Number which links all accounts owned by an individual.

He added, “What we have noticed is that in order to conceal funds, what politicians and top civil servants do is to open bank accounts in the name of family or friends and then make themselves the sole signatory to the account.

“Don’t forget that we traced about 17 bank accounts to the immediate past Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh (retd.).

“Often times, they do this in connivance with bank officials and that is why the EFCC Chairman, Mr. Ibrahim Magu, has said henceforth, whenever we are investigating a bank official, we will probe the entire bank as well because these officials usually act under the instruction of their superiors.”

Jonathan’s wife has, however, sued Skye Bank for freezing her bank accounts and giving the EFCC vital information about her finances.

She also wants the court to order Skye Bank to pay her damages in the sum of N200m for what she termed a violation of her right to own personal properties under Section 44 of the 1999 Constitution.

(PUNCH)