Patience Jonathan claims EFCC used 'unknown persons' to plead guilty in court

Former First Lady, Patience Jonathan, on Thursday said the decision by four companies linked to her to plead guilty in a corruption trial on Monday, was a conspiracy to confiscate her money and humiliate her.

Mrs. Jonathan said the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission plotted with “unknown persons” to carry out the “desperate” act.

The allegations were contained in a statement released by her lawyers shortly after four companies pleaded guilty before the Lagos Division of the Federal High Court.

The four companies are Pluto Property and Investment Company Limited, Sea Gate Property Development and Investment Company Limited; Trans Ocean Property and Investment Company Limited; and Avalon Global Property Development Company Limited.

Chima Osuji, a counsel to Mrs. Jonathan, said her client was the one who first took issues with the EFCC for allegedly freezing her account without following due process.

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

“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 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,” Mr. Osuji said.

Mr. Osuji said the law demands that appropriate identification must be verified before anyone could stand as representative of a firm, a procedure he said the EFCC failed to follow when the agency brought four individuals to enter pleas before a court.

Mrs. Jonathan slammed the EFCC for “tissues of lies being churned out” by the agency “in respect” of her case.

Mrs. Jonathan said she was “not a director, shareholder, promoter and/or participant in any of the four companies now under trial,” adding that she’s only interest in the case because “she was the sole signatory to all the said accounts, contrary to the fabrication that she used her driver and cook as proxies.”

EFCC spokesman, Wilson Uwujiaren, said Mrs. Jonathan should approach the courts if he felt agrieved about the agency’s actions.

“If she is unhappy about proceedings in court, she has the right to seek redress,” Mr. Uwujiaren said.