Ex Nigeria first lady Dame Patience Jonathan, wife of former President Goodluck Jonathan, has questioned the authenticity of the representatives of the four companies who pleaded guilty on Thursday to charges of money laundering at a Federal High Court in Lagos presided over by Justice Babs Kuewumi.

Vanguard reports that the defendants were challenging the validity of the representatives of Pluto Property and Investment Company Limited; Seagate Property Development and Investment Company Limited; Trans Ocean Property and Investment Company Limited; and Avalon Global Property Development Company Limited on the basis that they failed to produce a letter of authority to represent the companies as required under section 477 (2) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015.

Along with Waripamo Dudafa, a former aide to ex-President Jonathan, and two others, the companies are facing a 15-count 2nd Amended Charge of money laundering.

While Dudafa and the two others pleaded not guilty, the fourth to seventh defendants whose authenticity is being challenged, proceeded to curiously plead guilty, and admitted culpability before the court.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has since frozen the companies’ accounts with Skye Bank, while Mrs Jonathan subsequently filed a N200m fundamental rights suit laying claims to the accounts.

Media aide of the former Mrs. Jonathan, Chima Osuji alleged that the representatives of the companies as presented by the EFCC did not show letters authorising them by their respective boards to represent them in the case.

“This is a clear evidence of the desperation of the prosecution to pull down the former First Lady and confiscate her hard-earned money,” he stated.

“It is an irony. It was the former first lady who went to court for the repatriation of her confiscated money when she realised that the EFCC and its co-travellers were playing politics with this issue after she had come out publicly to say that the said money belongs to her and that she has all evidence to prove the sources of her money. Up till this very moment, EFCC has refused to interrogate or invite her for questioning.

“The biggest twist in court on Thursday was that the fourth to seventh defendants pleaded guilty to all the 15-count charges. It is clear that these unknown faces were agents of the EFCC, who have been stage-managed and tutored to come to court to complicate the case as a strategy to confiscate her money.”

He regretted that his boss’ well-earned image was being maligned in the court of public opinion, stating that “Mrs Jonathan is not a Director, shareholder, promoter and/or participant in any of the four companies now under trial, and that she was the sole signatory to all the said accounts, contrary to the fabrication that she used her driver and cook as proxies”.

Source: http://www.jtownconnect.com/2016/09/efcc-hired-mercenaries-to-plead-guilty.html

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