Patience Jonathan, wife of former Nigerian President has explained how she accumulated in 15 years $15million in several bank accounts linked to her by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
Patience had previously clarified that the $15m was for her foreign medical bills and other private expenses, and even branded the EFCC a big thie for going after her money.
But in a suit she filed against the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, which had earlier given the federal government a seven-day ultimatum to prosecute her, Patience explained that she got the money from gifts from people she could not even remember, over a 15-year period.
“There has been a running battle between the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and Mrs Jonathan with respect to the release of her legitimately earned funds which were deposited in accounts opened in the names of certain companies by one of her husband’s aides without her authorization,” her attorneys had written to the court, according to SERAP.
“The funds in question were legitimate gifts from her friends and well-wishers over the last 15 years, which she had been saving in order to utilize to upgrade family businesses and concerns, which had been somewhat dormant by reason of the long period of her husband service as a public officer in Nigeria.
“The gifts were given in small contributions by several persons, some of whom she cannot even now recall over this period of 15 years sometimes in as small a gift as N250,000 Naira. In order to preserve the value of these funds, which she did not require for any purpose at the time, she changed them into foreign exchange and kept them as cash for a long period in her home safe in Port Harcourt and Abuja”, the statement reads in part. (Culled)
