Former Firstlady Patience Jonathan Has To Explain How $5m Traced To Her Account By EFCC Came About - Sagay
The Chairman, Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption, Prof. Itse Sagay (SAN), has affirmed that with the admission by the ex-firstlady Dame Patience Jonathan that she owns the $5m traced to her accounts by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, that the anti-graft agency has the right to investigate and probe her.
The discovery of the additional amount, in the former first lady’s Skye Bank account, by the EFCC brings to $20m the total amount so far traced to her. According to Sagay, if the former first lady is claiming that she owns the money then she must explain how she earned it.
As the anti-corruption war of the present administration intensifies, investigations have been made into a money laundering case against a former Special Adviser on Domestic Affairs to ex-President Jonathan, Waripamowei Dudafa with the EFCC tracing four company accounts to him with a balance of $15m. The anti-graft agency however, has charged Dudafa and the four companies with money laundering.
“While we were investigating Dudafa, we traced the four companies to him. The companies have domiciliary accounts at Skye Bank with a balance of about $15m. So, we obtained a court order and froze the accounts''. A source at the EFCC revealed.
“We then traced the directors of the companies who then denied ownership of the accounts. It was later that we were informed that the accounts belonged to Patience Jonathan and that she is the sole signatory to the accounts. She was given a special card which she used in making withdrawals across the world.
“We, therefore, wondered why the accounts were not opened in her name if she had nothing to hide. In fact, we later found out that her personal account, which bears her name, has a balance of $5m. One wonders where a person, who has never held a government position, got the money from. She was not our initial target but she certainly has questions to answer.”
Be that as it may, reports has it that attempts to get the comments of the wife of the former president proved abortive.
