Patience Jonathan
Patience Jonathan, the wife of former President Goodluck Jonathan, has
dragged the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, before the
Federal High Court in Abuja, demanding N2billion as general
damages/compensation for the violation of her fundamental rights.
A report by Vanguard shows that the former first lady is praying
the court to declare that incessant harassment she has suffered in the
hands of the EFCC, through negative media publications, denigrating and
degrading her person as corrupt, without any invitation by the
anti-graft agency, trial or conviction by a court of competent
jurisdiction, amounted to gross violation of her rights under Section 37
of the 1999 Constitution.
She equally wants, “A declaration that indiscriminate freezing
of her bank accounts and those of her relatives by the EFCC under the
guise of investigation of proceeds of crime, without any invitation or
interrogation by the respondent is a violation of her rights to own
property and to fair hearing guaranteed under Sections 44 and 36(1) of
the 1999 Constitution.
“A declaration that the invasion, breaking into and ransacking
of the applicant’s family property by the agents of the respondent in
the absence of the applicant or any member of her family, while
purporting to be executing a search warrant is a violation of the
applicant’s fundamental human rights to private and family life
guaranteed under the provisions of Section 37 of the Constitution of the
Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended).
“A declaration that the incessant harassment of the applicant
by the respondent on the ground of her political views expressed by
reason of her being a member of the opposition party in Nigeria, is a
violation of the applicant’s fundamental human right to freedom from
discrimination, guaranteed under Section 42 of the Constitution of the
Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended)”.
As well as, “An order of court restraining the respondent,
whether by itself, its agents, privies or any person acting on its
behalf from further violating the applicant’s fundamental rights
adumbrated above”.
The suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/586/2017, was supported by a
21-paragraph affidavit dated June 30 and deposed to by one Sammie
Somiari.
The affidavit disclosed that the applicant had on January 4, 2017,
directed her lawyers to file a rights enforcement suit at the Federal
High Court Port-Harcourt, marked FHC/PH/FHR/17/2017 against the EFCC.
Mrs. Jonathan told the court that while parties had joined issues
in the suit, the EFCC continued to violate her fundamental rights by
invading and sealing up some of her properties in Abuja, including a
property belonging to her Non-Governmental Organisation.
She said that based on continuous violation of her rights,
especially with respect to the properties in Abuja, she instructed her
lawyers to withdraw suit no FHC/PH/FHR/17/2017, pending in Port-Harcourt
and file the instant suit.
Mrs Jonathan told the court that before her husband joined politics
sometime in 1998, she had a private business she was managing.
She said that between 1999 and 2015, while her husband climbed the
political ladder from being the Deputy Governor of Bayelsa State till he
became the President of Nigeria, she continued to run her private
businesses even though she was at various times the first lady of
Bayelsa State and that of Nigeria.
She said that when her husband was in office as the President,
between 2012 and 2013, she had some health challenges that necessitated
her going abroad for treatment and later surgeries.
“Because of the challenges of having to travel with substantial
cash for her medical treatment and the need not to contravene the
Nigerian Law or any other law on money laundering, she sought for
opinion of the then Acting Chairman of the EFCC, Mr Ibrahim Lamorde, who
advised her to obtain credit cards from her banks.
“It was based on the advice of Lamorde, that Mrs Jonathan
invited her banks and informed them of her desire to obtain credit
cards.
“That on the 22nd of March, 2013, she opened 5 different
accounts in Skye Bank Plc and credit cards were issued in respect of the
said accounts.
“On one of her medical trips abroad, her Debit Visa Card with
Skye Bank Plc stopped functioning as she could not pay her medical bills
with the said card.
“Upon her return to Nigeria, she made enquiries through Skye Bank as to what happened to her Debit Card.
“That her enquiries revealed that it was the Respondent (the
EFCC) that placed a No Debit Order on the said account and four others”.
She said the Commission later told her lawyers that the accounts were subject of money laundering investigations.
The applicant told the court that EFCC, in its determined bid to
“make life unbearable for her”, applied and secured an order from
Justice Binta Nyako of the high court, freezing not only her accounts,
but also the ones belonging to her late mother, Mama Sisi Charity Oba.
“The Respondent has demonstrated a pathological dislike for the
Applicant as the activities of the operatives of the Respondent
overlook the fact that the Applicant was never a political office
holder.
“The investigation into the operations of her pet project, NGO
when she was first lady is an unprecedented act of animorsity against
her as none of her project was funded by the government at any level”, the affidavit further read.
She maintained that unless it is restrained by the court, EFCC
would continue to harrass her, adding that the agency waged a
psychological war on her by its incessant threats of arrest of her
relations, such as Mrs. Esther Oba, Tamunotonye Oba and her elder
brother, Mr. Aseminaso Nyengierefaka.
The Applicant said she was being harassed and persecuted by EFCC
because of her political views which she had expressed as a member of
the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, during the 2015
Presidential election campaign.
Meanwhile, the suit which was anchored on Order 2 Rule 1 of the
Fundamental Rights Enforcement Procedure Rules 2009 and Sections 34(1),
36(1), 37, 42 and 44 of 1999 Constitution as amended, has been assigned
to Justice John Tsoho who has fixed it for hearing on November 16.
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