The Federal Government has asked a court in New York , the United States of America , to compel 10 foreign banks to release to it account details of former President Goodluck Jonathan , his wife , Patience , and the then Minister of Petroleum Resources in his administration , Mrs Diezani Alison -Madueke .
But Jonathan on Tuesday denied owning a foreign bank account .
Bloomberg reports that the banks from whom the Federal Government is seeking the documents include , Citigroup and JPMorgan , as well as the New York branches of Deutsche Bank AG and United Bank for Africa Plc .
The Federal Government’ s request was contained in an application filed at the foreign court on March 24 asking for the bank documents .
The Attorney General of the Federation , Mr Abubakar Malami, is said to have asked for the bank documents in its bid to overturn the P & ID $ 9. 6 bn judgment .
The $ 9. 6 bn award was issued against Nigeria and in favour of P & ID in a January 31 , 2017 ruling of a London arbitration tribunal , which held the Federal Government liable for the breach of a 20 - year gas supply agreement signed in 2010 between P & ID and Nigeria , through the Ministry of Petroleum Resources .
The London Commercial Court in a judgment delivered on August 16 , 2019 gave P & ID a go- ahead to enforce the London arbitration panel ’ s award of the sum of $ 9. 6 bn .
But the Federal Government is seeking to overturn the award .
According to Bloomberg , the Federal Government , is seeking the bank documents to enable it to prove that the $ 9. 6 bn arbitration was obtained by Process and Industrial Development by fraud .
The Federal Government said in the court document that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission is probing the roles of two former petroleum ministers , the late Rilwanu Lukman and his successor , Alison -Madueke .
It , however , said it had yet to find “ direct evidence ” that Jonathan , Alison - Madueke and other politicians received payments from P & ID or its affiliates, the country said in its court filings .
But Malami stated in the court document , “There is good reason to believe that ministers at the highest level were involved in a corrupt scheme to steal money from Nigeria. ”
The Federal Government said Lukman , who was then the Minister of Petroleum signed the contract while Alison - Madueke was responsible for the “ flagrant mishandling” of the government ’ s arbitration strategy until 2015 , the country said .
A spokesman for P & ID denied wrongdoing, arguing that Malami has “manufactured a claim of fraud and bribery ” to evade the state ’ s legal obligation to pay what amounts to about 30 % of the country’ s foreign reserves .
Malami’ s application is “nothing but an absurdly overbroad fishing expedition , ” P & ID said in an April 24 court filing .
But Jonathan has however denied having any foreign accounts whose details could be requested for .
In a statement by his spokesman, Ikechukwu Eze , the ex -President said he or his wife was not contacted before the request for the documents was filed by the Federal Government .
Eze stated , “Our attention has been drawn to international media reports to the effect that the Federal Government of Nigeria has subpoenaed bank records for former President Goodluck Jonathan , and his wife , Dame Patience Jonathan in the United States of America .
“ We aver that the Federal Government of Nigeria did not contact Dr Jonathan or his wife before issuing these subpoenas . If they had, we would have advised them of the fact that you cannot subpoena what does not exist . We also remind the public that on March 5, 2014 , during the swearing in of new ministers, then President Jonathan said “I am loyal to Nigeria’ s economy . I don ’ t have accounts or property abroad . ”
“ We are confident in stating that between that time and now, nothing has changed with regards to Dr Goodluck Jonathan . He has no accounts in the United States of America , and encourages US authorities to cooperate fully with the Federal Government of Nigeria’ s subpoena . ”

https://punchng.com/fg-seeks-jonathan-diezanis-foreign-accounts-details/