Eniola Akinkuotu, Abuja

Dame Patience Jonathan, the wife of former President Goodluck Jonathan, may forfeit to the Federal Government, a N10bn hotel allegedly belonging to her if she fails to explain how she came about some funds allegedly traced to her accounts.

“This is one of the questions she may have to answer as the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission continues investigation into the $20m found in five accounts she has laid claim to,” a source told our correspondent on Monday.

The hotel, which is known as Aridolf Resort Wellness and Spa, Yenagoa, was inaugurated by Patience in April 2015, barely a month before the end of her husband’s tenure.

According to a UK business newspaper, The Financial Times, the hotel, which has imported state-of-the-art furniture, can compete with other luxury hotels in developed countries.

The report dated April 21, 2015, states in part, “The Aridolf Hotel in Yenagoa is an unlikely monument to kitsch on a reclaimed swamp in Nigeria’s oil-producing Niger Delta. In the lobby, Louis XIV furniture is accompanied by bowls of plastic fruit, faux Dutch landscapes and a grotesquely gaudy chandelier. The hotel is redolent of the riches on display in a region that for half a century has generated the bulk of Nigeria’s wealth.

“The Aridolf, which is owned by Patience Jonathan, wife of the former President, is symptomatic of how superficial progress has been in addressing the festering sense of marginalisation in the region, which remains desperately impoverished despite benefiting from a tide of petrodollars in recent years.”

The Chairman, Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption, Prof. Itse Sagay, told our correspondent that the EFCC had the right to investigate anybody who was living above his or her means.

He said anybody, who failed to do so, could risk forfeiture of properties believed to have been obtained through stolen funds or could lose funds traced to him or her.

Sagay, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, wondered how Patience, who was a civil servant and never held any government position, could have billions in her bank accounts.

He said, “The EFCC and ICPC Acts have provisions under which they can ask the court to freeze the account of a person if a person’s capacity to earn is below the amount of money that the person appears to have.

“If you are living a lavish lifestyle and it appears you don’t have the means to have acquired the property and the wealth you have, the EFCC is free to probe you.”

Patience recently sued Skye Bank and the EFCC for freezing four company accounts which have a balance of $15m.

The former first lady also has another account with the title, ‘Patience Ibifaka Jonathan’ which has a balance of $5m. The account is, however, still active.

The PUNCH had reported that four of the accounts belonged to Pluto Property and Investment Company Limited, Seagate Property Development and Investment Company Limited, Trans Ocean Property and Investment Company Limited and Globus Integrated Service Limited.

The anti-graft commission believed that a former Special Adviser to the President on Domestic Affairs, Waripamowei Dudafa, forged the identities of his domestic servants to open the four accounts while the fifth account was opened in the name of Patience.

The domestic servants were, however, denied access to the accounts while a platinum card was issued to Patience.

The EFCC froze the accounts of the four companies which were initially believed to be owned by Dudafa until Patience stated last week that the four accounts belonged to her.

The EFCC is set to arraign Dudafa and some bank officials for alleged fraud.

However, Mr. Joseph Okobieme, the lawyer to Demola Bolodeoku, one of the bank officials, said his client did not take part in forging the signatures of the domestic servants/directors.

He said, “I don’t know why he was included in the charge. He has no business in this transaction. He was merely doing his job as a banker. The allegation they levelled against him was not that he benefitted from the proceeds of the alleged transaction.

“There is a mere allegation of forgery of certain documents which are not within his power to have forged because he is not a director of the company.

“These four companies were duly registered by the CAC (Corporate Affairs Commission) with the names and the directors on record. So, if they say the names of these directors were forged, it is not possible for my client to have forged them. Clearly, he was not the author of the documents.”

He believed that the four domestic servants should be charged by the EFCC as well.

http://punchng.com/20m-accounts-patience-jonathan-may-forfeit-n10bn-hotel-fg/

And some people will be shouting marginalization when their own elders embezzled and ate away their kids, cities and generation's future...


she needs to be tied to the gallows....

socialmediaman:

what's wrong with these kids booking space upandan.....whatever happens to rational thinking.

Amen. Im so so excited by this news

I don't know why the hotel has not been sealed since. The government is taking too long to sort out some of the serious crimes GEJ and his family committed against The Nigerian State and that explains why GEJ still has no remorse for his crimes.
Government is broke now because so much was stolen under GEJ.
All these corruption cases are dragging too slow for God sake, the state should hasten the take off of the special courts for corruption cases.

muguns,
efcc has to prove she acquired the hotel illegally.
she does not have to tell the court anything since Nigerian courts assume she is innocent till efcc convinces us otherwise.

That illiterate old cargo displaying primitive accumulation of wealth while her weakling of a hubby sat by and watched helplessly... She is a kleptomaniac and needs deliverance.

tit:
muguns,
efcc has to prove she acquired the hotel illegally.
she does not have to tell the court anything since Nigerian courts assume she is innocent till efcc convinces us otherwise.

pls madam, what do you stand to gain from defending what is indefensible? You can do the maths yourself, she only worked as a civil servant up to the Permanent Secretary level, so how will she have acquired the enormous wealth on display?

HungerBAD have you collected your August e-whatwhat salary?

I wonder when Tinubu whose Oriental Hotel in Victoria Island in Lagos is more expensive will be probed. Check out the hotel:

I still don't believe in d fight against corruption by this administration untill they fight it holistically..it's goes beyond selecting those to go after and the "saints".There are thieves under this administration going nd walking about free which EFCC turned deaf nd blind eyes to.As far as am concerned, mr president hasn't done anything because corruption in Nigeria has gone systemic and untill he do some general reforms to clean up the system, it's will amounted to chasing shadows. let there be a capital punishment for anyone who still d public funds,but who will legislate on such bill when we have thieves as the speakers and Senate president? they won't do such.

Like husband like wife.

efcc should prove she got it illegally .. thats all... he who alleges must prove

cindyrocks:
HungerBAD have you collected your August e-whatwhat salary?

After my advice on the other thread, HungerBAD is no longer "trying" But rather doing his best so as to earn his pay.

naijafella:
That illiterate old cargo displaying primitive accumulation of wealth while her weakling of a hubby sat by and watched helplessly... She is a kleptomaniac and needs deliverance.

proof she stole.... your efcc has alleged.

smada13:


pls madam, what do you stand to gain from defending what is indefensible? You can do the maths yourself, she only worked as a civil servant up to the Permanent Secretary level, so how will she have acquired the enormous wealth on display?

efcc must prove she stole! or keep kwayet

cindyrocks:
Tinubu's Oriental Hotel in Lagos is more expensive. Check it out:

don't mind the jihadists using economy and ethnicity to fight corruption incuding party affiliation!

smellingmenses:

proof she stole.... your efcc has alleged.

Oh, I forgot.She was born with a silver spoon.She inherited a vast fortune from her late billionaire parents.And now EFCC wants to confiscate this family legacy.

They are busy doing selective probing.

smellingmenses:


don't mind the jihadists using economy and ethnicity to fight corruption incuding party affiliation!

Businessideas:
I don't know why the hotel has not been sealed since. The government is taking too long to sort out some of the serious crimes GEJ and his family committed against The Nigerian State and that explains why GEJ still has no remorse for his crimes.
Government is broke now because so much was stolen under GEJ.
All these corruption cases are dragging too slow for God sake, the state should hasten the take off of the special courts for corruption cases.

why has buratai's multi million dollars mansions in dubai not seized?

And some hungry fools will defend this woman claiming it is witch hunting. Absolute madness. A common illitrate stealing for an intelligent citizenry.

kropotkin2:
Amen. Im so so excited by this news

only an empty headed fellow will be tickled by this junk served by efcc to distract nigerians from its incompetencies

Check out Tinubu's very expensive Oriental hotel, but so bad he won't be probed because he belongs to the ruling party: APC.

mazimee:


After my advice on the other thread, HungerBAD is no longer "trying" But rather doing his best so as to earn his pay.

naijafella:


Oh, I forgot.She was born with a silver spoon.She inherited a vast fortune from her late billionaire parents.And now EFCC wants to confiscate this family legacy.

el rufai is worth over a hundred billion naira yet he's an APC saint! where did he make such money?

cindyrocks:
They are busy doing selective probing.

they r not probing but waging an economic jihad against the south! if buhari claims Abacha never stole...

Exactly. All because of 2019 election.

smellingmenses:

they r not probing but waging an economic jihad against the south!

smada13:
And some people will be shouting marginalization when their own elders embezzled and ate away their kids, cities and generation's future...


she needs to be tied to the gallows....

we r not terrorists ok! allegations r not facts! she is innocent and your economic jihad will not work

cindyrocks:
Exactly. All because of 2019 election.

you get it... to neutralize key opposition before then...

We already kw dis people are corrupt, but life is 10 times better for the poor masses under their tenure than dis so-called government of saints.

cindyrocks:
Check out Tinubu's very expensive Oriental hotel, but so bad he won't be probed because he belongs to the ruling party: APC.

Are you not aware that Tinubu is a saint just like the rest of the broom waving change agents except the unyielding pain in the ass senator from Kwara state