The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has secured an interim forfeiture of N1.04bn lodged in three deposit accounts on May 20 and 25, 2015 by a company allegedly linked to the former first lady, Patience Jonathan.
The forfeiture order by the Federal High Court sitting in Kano and presided over by Justice A. Lewis-Allagoa was consequent upon an ex parte motion filed by the commission seeking for the interim forfeiture of the money, which was found in the bank account of Magel Resort Limited.
This was contained in a statement in Abuja on Friday by the acting EFCC spokesman, Tony Orilade.
The commission had obtained an intelligence that a bank account had a huge sum of money that was not being utilised by anyone.
Upon receipt of the intelligence, the EFCC swung into action by conducting preliminary investigation which revealed that Patience and some relatives of former President Goodluck Jonathan were directors of the company.
Others named as directors are Oba Tamunotonye, Goodluck Jonathan Aruera, Goodluck Ariwabai and Esther Fynface.
In trying to trace the origin of the money, it was discovered that N500,000 was deposited on the 20th of May, 2015 by Fynface, who was alleged to be in charge of the company, while N1bn was transferred in two tranches on the 25th May, 2015 from Pagmat Oil & Gas Limited, a company that was not incorporated with the Corporate Affairs Commission.
Ruling on the motion, Justice Lewis-Allagoa held that, “An interim forfeiture order is granted to the Federal Government in the sum of N1,000,494,000 in the bank account of the second respondent, Magel Resort Limited,”
The court further ordered that the forfeited sum be deposited in the Treasury Single Account (TSA) of the Federal Government.
