Former First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan has urged the EFCC to release the $15m frozen in four companies’ accounts, saying they were meant for her medical bills while she was out of the country.

In a letter by her lawyers, Granville Abibo (SAN) and Co, addressed to the Acting Chairman of the EFCC, Ibrahim Magu, she asked that the restriction on the accounts domiciled in Skye Bank be lifted.

It was reported that domestic workers of a former Special Adviser on Domestic Affairs to Jonathan, Waripamowei Dudafa were named directors of four companies whose accounts the money were lodged.

The companies included; 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 letter read in part, “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.”

 

She urged the EFCC boss to wade into the matter, stating that all her explanations to EFCC officials have fallen on deaf ears.

She added, “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.”

However, a detective in the EFCC said, “We got a relevant court order to freeze those accounts and we have evidence which we will present in court on Friday.

“We did not know that the accounts belonged to Patience Jonathan at the time we froze them. The accounts do not bear her name neither do they carry her BVN (Bank Verification Number). So, how can she accuse us of harassment?

“She has a separate account in Skye Bank with the title ‘Patience Jonathan’, which has a balance of $5m. If she claims she needs money for medical treatment, then the $5m should be alright.”

Patience had once mentioned that she went through 7 surgical operations within a month and the doctors had given up on her survival.

“I remember when Chief  Obasanjo was the President of the country, I was close to his late wife, Stella. We worshiped together in this chapel. It was a painful moment for me that time when she (Stella) died and her corpse was brought here.

“That was how my corpse would have been brought here.

‘‘It was not an easy experience for me. I actually died, I passed out for more than a week. My intestine and tummy were opened.

“I am not Lazarus but my experience was similar to his. My doctors said all hope was lost” she had said.