Court orders forfeiture of N1.04bn traced to Patience Jonathan
A federal high court in Kano has ordered the forfeiture of One Billion, Four Hundred and Ninety Four Thousand Naira lodged by a company linked to former first lady, Mrs. Patience Jonathan at the Fidelity Bank Plc in May 2015
Justice Lewis Allagoa ordered the forfeiture following a motion exparte filed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission seeking the interim forfeiture of the money, which was found in the Bank account of Magel Resort Limited.
The Commission had gotten an intelligence report that a bank account domiciled in Fidelity Bank, had a huge sum of money that was not being used by anybody.
On receiving the intelligence, the EFCC conducted preliminary investigation, which revealed that the former first lady, Mrs Patience Jonathan and some relatives of the former president, Goodluck Jonathan were directors of the Company. Others named as directors are Oba Oba Tamunotonye, Goodluck Jonathan Aruera, Goodluck Jonathan Ariwabai and Esther Fynface.
In trying to trace 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.
Ruling on the motion, Justice A. Lewis-Allagoa granted “An interim forfeiture order 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 Magel Resort Limited 4011019546 which is maintained with the Fidelity Bank Plc”.
The court also ordered that the forfeited money be deposited in the Treasury Single Account of the Federal Government.