Patience Jonathan, Wife of Former President, has been ordered by a court to temporary forfeit the sum of N1.0004 billion to the Federal Government.
okay gathered that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) secured an interim forfeiture of N1,000,494,000 belonging to the former first lady.
Justice Lewis Allagoa of the Federal High Court sitting in Kano granted a motion ex parte filed by EFCC seeking the temporary forfeit of the recovered money.
The sum of N1,000,494,000 was found in the bank account of Magel Resort Limited, a company linked to Patience Jonathan.
The EFCC got information of the bank account domiciled in Fidelity Bank was said to have stored huge sum of money that is not being used by anybody.
However, the Commission acted fast by conducting preliminary investigations which revealed that the former First Lady and some relatives of ex-President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan are directors of the company.
Others named as directors of the company are Oba Tamunotonye, Goodluck Jonathan Aruera, Goodluck Jonathan Ariwabai and Esther Fynface.
Also, while trying to find the origin of the money, it was discovered that N500,000 was deposited on the 20th of May, 2015 by Fynface, who is alleged to be in charge of the Company, while N1 billion (One Billion Naira Only) was transferred in two tranches on the 25th May, 2015 from PAGMAT OIL AND GAS NIGERIA LIMITED, a company that was not incorporated with the Corporate Affairs Commission.
The court order granted by Justice Lewis Allagoa reads: “An interim forfeiture order is granted to the Federal Government in the sum of N1,000,494,000 (One Billion, Four Hundred and Ninety Four Thousand Naira) only in the Bank account of the 1st respondent Magel Resort Limited 4011019546 which is maintained with 2nd respondent Fidelity Bank Plc”.
The court further ordered that the forfeited sum be deposited in the Treasury Single Account of the Federal Government.