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Court unfreezes 16 accounts belonging to Patience Jonathan

By Samson Ezea
08 December 2017   |   11:46 pm
An Abuja Division of the Federal High Court has set aside its order made on May 30, freezing 16 accounts belonging to wife of former President Goodluck Jonathan. Justice Binta Nyako withdrew the order on Tuesday on the grounds that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), which secured the freezing order failed to conduct…

Patience Jonathan

An Abuja Division of the Federal High Court has set aside its order made on May 30, freezing 16 accounts belonging to wife of former President Goodluck Jonathan.

Justice Binta Nyako withdrew the order on Tuesday on the grounds that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), which secured the freezing order failed to conduct its investigation into the alleged infractions involving the 16 accounts.

The court’s decision followed an application by the counsel to Mrs. Jonathan asking the court to set aside an ex-parte motion filed by the EFCC for continued control of the accounts.

The lawyer, Mike Ozekhome, described EFCC’s motion as an abuse of court process.

“The judge, Justice Binta, had given the EFCC 90 days within which to investigate and prosecute parties involved in the allegations, but they never did that. So we asked the court to set aside the interim forfeiture order. The judge set aside the order granted on May 30,” Ozekhome said.

This development has once again put a question mark on the EFCC’s anti-graft fight. This is not the first time EFCC will be losing such a high profile case, obviously for lack of diligent prosecution. Why has the leadership of EFCC continuously engaged in media trial, instead of diligent prosecution? It is high time the EFCC returned to the drawing board and devise more effective ways of fighting corruption wars.

With this development, won’t Nigerians believe Mrs. Jonathan’s allegation that she is being witch-hunted by the EFCC? Yes, this latest judgment has somehow vindicated and exonerated Mrs Jonathan for now. If not, why did the EFCC failed to investigate and prosecute parties involved in the alleged crime within the stipulated 90 days, or at worst, ask the court for more days? EFCC’s action in this regard is suspicious and ridiculous. It raises more questions than answers.

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