Patience Jonathan |
Indications emerged on Friday that the
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission was intensifying moves to
gather evidence against the former First Lady, Patience Jonathan, for a
possible prosecution.
A top operative of the commission said
on Friday that the leadership of the commission had initiated a discreet
probe of the former First Lady in a bid to assemble evidence against
her in the event of her prosecution as a fallout of the commission’s
decision to freeze $20m traced to her.
The source said that the commission had
assembled a team of detectives saddled with the responsibility of
identifying all houses and property belonging to the former First Lady.
It was stated that the operatives had
been instructed from the office of the commission’s chairman to mark
such houses and property as part of the preparation for the prosecution
of the First Lady.
It was further stated that the
operatives were focusing attention on property in Abuja, Yenagoa, Port
Harcourt and other cities in the country.
The source said, “It would not be
correct to conclude that the commission has halted the investigation
into the activities of the former First Lady.
“The investigation is progressing and it is being handled by the office of the chairman of the commission.
“A team of operatives has been assembled
to identify all her properties in the country with a focus on Abuja,
Port Harcourt and Yenagoa.
“The responsibility of the team is to mark all such properties in preparation for a possible court action.”
The EFCC had traced $5m to the personal
account of the former First Lady and frozen the account domiciled in
Skye Bank Plc last month.
The commission’s face off with Mrs.
Jonathan started when the commission froze the accounts of four
companies traced to the Special Adviser to ex-President Jonathan on
Domestic Affairs, Waripamowei Dudafa.
The four firms identified as Pluto
Property and Investment Company Limited; Seagate Property Development
and Investment Company Limited; Trans Ocean Property and Investment
Company had a total of $15,591,700 in their accounts.
However, the commission was brought into
a face-off with Mrs. Jonathan when she deposed to an affidavit that the
money belonged to her.
The former First Lady has since filed a
suit at a Federal High Court in Lagos against the commission seeking an
order to unfreeze the accounts.
She is also demanding $200m compensation from the commission for alleged violation of her rights.
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