A Federal High Court will deliver judgment in an application seeking final forfeiture of $8.4 million and N9.2 billion allegedly linked to former First Lady, Patience Jonathan. Justice Mojisola Olatoregun of the Federal High Court in Ikoyi, Lagos, has fixed February 11, 2019 to deliver judgment on the lawsuit filed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) which allege the money was the proceeds of illegal activities. The court had, on April 19, 2018, ordered an interim forfeiture of the money, following an ex-parte application filed by the EFCC against Patience Jonathan and five companies.
EFCC acting spokesman, Tony Orilade, said in a statement yesterday in Abuja that the money was kept in Skye Bank Plc (now Polaris Bank Plc), Diamond Bank Plc, Stabic-IBTC and First Bank Plc. The EFCC filed the application against the former first lady and six others – Globus Integrated Services Ltd, Finchley Top Homes Ltd, Am-Pm Global Network Ltd, Pagmat Oil and Gas Ltd, Magel Resort Ltd, and Esther Oba, as the second to the seventh respondents, respectively.
At the last adjourned sitting on Jan 15, 2019, five video clips of the companies belonging to the former First Lady were shown to the court. After viewing the videos, EFCC counsel, Rotimi Oyedepo, told the court that the EFCC had filed and served a further affidavit to the respondents’ application to show cause. Oyedepo informed the court that he was not served the video of the Women for Change Initiative and two others by the defence, a claim that was confirmed by the court.
At the resumed hearing yesterday, counsel to the first respondent, Mike Ozekhome (SAN) urged the court to expunge paragraphs nine to 12 of the response of counsel to the applicant. According to Ozekhome, the prosecution raised new issues in an attempt to discredit the video exhibit on the case, instead of responding to existing issues. But the Judge disagreed, saying she had found no reason why those paragraphs should be expunged.
In his submission for final forfeiture, Oyedepo told the court that Jonathan, fraudulently diverted funds from Women for Change Initiative, an NGO linked to her. According to Oyedepo, most of the funds were fraudulently diverted from the NGO to other accounts of the second to sixth respondents – companies said to be owned by the former first lady.
Oyedepo said: “Women for Change Initiative is not joined in this suit; we are not asking for forfeiture of its money, the funds have been converted and that is an unlawful act.” He further told the court that Patience Jonathan signed some of the fund transfer instructions personally, and also signed using other people’s names and passport photographs.
Oyedepo also said that as regards the $8.4 million, the first respondent (Patience Jonathan) had not been able to disclose to the court, the identities of those who made the donations. He said that the EFCC attached exhibits to show that the former first lady was the sole signatory to the companies’ accounts. “The funds we are seeking to forfeit from the second to sixth respondents are not funds from their legitimate businesses but those traced from the NGO,” Oyedepo said.
In her short ruling, Justice Olatoregun set Feb 11 as the date of her final ruling on the case.