Former Nigerian First Lady, Mrs. Patience Jonathan and her cronies have finally lost all the billions of naira and millions of dollars to the Federal Government.
The order was handed down today, July 1st by the Judge of the Federal High Court in Lagos, Justice Cecilia Olatoregun. The monies are made up of $8,435,788.84 and N9.1 billion.
The forfeited funds are $3.65million, $4.7million, N1.81billion, N226..38 million, N1.09 billion, N39.42 million, N7.22million, N55.94million. N174.17million, N858.93million, N1.81billion, N1.1billion, N317.40million, N1.90billion and $429.389.87million.
The judge directed that the humongous funds should be forfeited to the Federal Government on the grounds that they were proceeds of crimes while Mrs. Jonathan and the firms could not legitimately account for the ownership of the funds.
The court had on April 19, 2018, made an order of interim forfeiture of the various sums of money, following an ex-parte application filed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, against Jonathan and some companies.
The companies named in the suit marked FHC/L/CS/620/18, are: Globus Integrated Service Limited; Finchley Top Homes Limited; AM-PM Global Network Limited; Pagmat Oil and Gas Limited and Magel Resort Limited.
The funds were warehoused in some banks, including Skye Bank Plc (now Polaris Bank Plc), Diamond Bank Plc, Stabic-IBTC and First Bank Plc.
In granting the interim forfeiture order, Justice Olatoregun had ordered the EFCC to publish the order in a national newspaper for the respondent or anyone interested in the money to show cause, within 14 days, why it should not be permanently forfeited to the Federal Government of Nigeria.
Following the publication of the interim forfeiture order, the EFCC, through its counsel, Rotimi Oyedepo, had, on October 29, 2018, moved a motion for the final forfeiture of the sums of money to the Federal Government.
Dissatisfied with the ruling of the trial court, the first respondent, Jonathan, through her lawyer, Ifedayo Adedipe, SAN, had approached the Court of Appeal, Lagos Division, seeking an order to set aside the interim forfeiture order of April 19, 2018 granted to the EFCC by Justice Olatoregun.
Her appeal, however, was subsequently dismissed by the Court of Appeal in Lagos.
In an attempt to claim ownership of the money, the first respondent also approached the Supreme Court to set aside the judgment of the appellate court.
However, the apex court, on March 8, 2019, upheld the interim forfeiture of the funds.
A five-man panel of the apex court led by Justice Dattijo Muhammad, in a unanimous decision, refused to set aside the order of temporary forfeiture of the sums of money issued by the trial court.
The apex court held that the Court of Appeal, Lagos Division, was right to have affirmed the forfeiture order.
Delivering judgment today, Justice Olatoregun held that the money was reasonably suspected to be proceeds of crime.
The Judge also held that: “There is no reason provided in the affidavit to convince the court or to show cause why the monies should not be forfeited to the Federal Government of Nigeria.
“There is no evidence to reasonably show, beyond doubts, that the monies were legitimately earned.”
Justice Olatoregun, therefore, granted the EFCC’s application that the money should be permanently forfeited to the Federal Government.
