- Justice Mojisola Olatoregun of the Federal High Court in Ikoyi, Lagos on Monday, ordered the final forfeiture, of $8.4 Million and N9.2 Billion belonging to former First Lady, Patience Jonathan, to the Nigerian Government.
Justice Mojisola Olatoregun of the Federal High Court sitting in Ikoyi, Lagos, has ordered the final forfeiture of $8,435,788.84 and N9.1 billion belonging to wife of former President Goodluck Jonathan to the Nigerian government.
The forfeiture ruling was made on Monday as an order for interim forfeiture was made on April 19, 2018, following an ex-parte application filed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, against Jonathan and some companies.
The judge also directed that the humongous funds should be forfeited to the Federal Government on the grounds that they were proceeds of crimes while Mrs Jonathan and the firms could not legitimately account for the ownership of the funds.
The companies named in the suit marked FHC/L/CS/620/18, are: Globus Integrated Service Limited; Finchley Top Homes Limited; AM-PM Global Network Limited; Pagmat Oil and Gas Limited and Magel Resort Limited.
The funds were kept in various bank accounts, including Skye Bank Plc (now Polaris Bank Plc), Diamond Bank Plc, Stanbic-IBTC and First Bank Plc.
Delivering judgment today, Justice Olatoregun held that the money was reasonably suspected to be proceeds of crime adding that the defence counsel could not prove to the court that the money were legitimately earned.
She said: “There is no reason provided in the affidavit to convince the court or to show cause why the monies should not be forfeited to the Federal Government of Nigeria.
“There is no evidence to reasonably show, beyond doubts, that the monies were legitimately earned.”
Details of the monies traced to, recovered and forfeited to the federal government by Mrs Patience Jonathan include the sum of $3,645,013.73, found by the commission in account No.2031277178 domiciled with First Bank of Nigeria Ltd; the sum of $4,361,393.24, found by the commission in account No.1771421299 domiciled with Skye Bank Plc; the sum of N1,800,494,000.00, found in account No.4011019539 domiciled with Fidelity Bank Plc; the sum of N226,376,700.23 in account No.1102001996 domiciled with Eco Bank Ltd; the sum of N1,085,576,947.99 found in account No.1102001996 domiciled with Eco Bank Ltd; the sum of N39,418,712.12 found in account No.0019213687 domiciled with Diamond Bank Plc; the sum of N7,213,303.50 found in account No.0026718889 domiciled with Diamond Bank Plc; and
The sum of N55,930,024.50 found in account No.0026838491 domiciled with Diamond Bank Plc.
Also found in her banks accounts were the sum of N174,166,207.06 in account No.0024351590 domiciled with Diamond Bank Plc; the sum of N858,923,982.55 in account No.1011744356 domiciled with Zenith Bank Plc; the sum of N1,809,666,494.68 in account No.4011019560 domiciled with Fidelity Bank Plc; the sum of N1,000,494,000.00 in account No.4011019546 domiciled with Fidelity Bank Plc; the sum of N317,397,458.26 in account No.0016971559 domiciled with Stanbic IBTC Bank Plc; the sum of N1,809,666,494.68 in account No.4011019577 domiciled with Fidelity Bank Plc; and the sum of $429,381.87 in account No.2110003170 domiciled with Skye Bank Plc.
