Former first lady, Patience Jonathan on Thursday denied ownership of four accounts credited to her by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
In a statement by her media aide, Yemi Akinbode, Mrs Jonathan said she the accusations against her were “fallacious”.
The statement said, “That Mrs. Patience Ibifaka Jonathan is laying claim to ownership of a whopping sum of $31.7 million dollars fund recovered by EFCC is a complete fallacy. Mrs. Jonathan does not own and has never owned such amount of money. The reason for this lie is best known to the EFCC.
“That another sum of $20 million dollars has been traced to Mrs. Patience Ibifaka Jonathan, is again, another falsehood aimed at hoodwinking the public against Mrs. Jonathan.
“That a further sum of $5 million dollars has again being traced to another account of Mrs. Patience Jonathan. This is also a fallacy.
“That Mrs. Patience Jonathan opened accounts in the names of cooks, drivers and artisans. This is perhaps the biggest falsehood to the knowledge of EFCC.”
Mrs. Jonathan accused the EFCC of stage managing the witnesses in order to tarnish the “well-earned image” of Mrs. Jonathan as those presented by the prosecution as representatives of the companies were unknown to her.
Her words, “This is an irony. I was the one who went to court for the repatriation of my confiscated money when I realised that the EFCC and its co-travellers were playing politics with this issue after I had come out publicly to say that the said money belongs to me and that I have all evidence to prove the sources of my money.
“Up till this very moment, EFCC has refused to interrogate or invite me for questioning, while the agency has continued to detain Dudafa under heavy armed security guards.
“The biggest twist in court on Thursday was that the fourth to seventh defendants pleaded guilty to all the 15-count charges. It is clear that these unknown faces were agents of the EFCC, who have been stage-managed and tutored to come to court to complicate the case as a strategy to confiscate my money.”
Mrs Jonathan restated she was not a director or shareholder in the four companies that pleaded guilty, and that she is the sole signatory to the accounts, contrary to the EFCC claims that she made use of proxies.
Dolapo is a writer and journalist who works with YNaija. He has interests in Christianity, politics and sports.
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