Mrs Jonathan asks court to set aside $5.8m, N3.5b forfeiture order

Former first Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan on Thursday asked the Federal High Court in Abuja to set aside the court order dated May 30,2017 that frozen her 16 separate bank accounts containing the sum of $5.8million United States dollars and N3.5 billion on the ground that it has expired.
Dame Jonathan also told the court that the orders of interim forfeiture including a subsequent one issued on October 10, 2017 have become spent and can not be extended as the original order was obtained by an improper use of court process by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, (EFCC).
She said in a deposition filed in court that the Incorporated Trustees of Ariwabai Aruera Reachout Foundation, nine other companies and herself were the owners of the sums.
That the Federal High Court in Abuja had on May 30 , 2017 granted an exparte order in favour of the of the federal government against all the accounts own and operated by them the applicants.
That same federal government later went to Lagos and obtained another order made by
Justice C.M.A Olatoregun of the Federal High Court Lagos Division on October 10, 2017 directing the Managers of the Skye Bank, Eco Bank PLC , Fidelity Bank PLC, Stanbic IBTC PLC, Zenith Bank PLC, and Diamond Bank PLC to in the interim ,freeze and attach the various sums of money in the accounts belonging to Dame Patience Jonathan, Finchley Top Homes limited and Ariwabai Aruera Reachout Foundation.
That prior to the grant of the ex -parte motion by the court in Abuja the federal government had filed a similar application before Justice Olatoregun of Lagos division but failed to disclose the fact that it had obtained same reliefs in Lagos.
Dame Jonathan is also contending that the owners of the money were never served with the interim order and that they became aware of it during a hearing of a petition Dame Patience Jonathan lodged at the National Assembly .
When the matter came up for hearing yesterday before Justice Binta Nyako of the federal high court Abuja both Chief Mike Ozekhome (SAN) and Richard Dauda who announced appearances for Dame Jonathan and federal government respectively insisted that their application must be taken first.
Dauda said that the federal government application which is seeking to extend the interim order of forfeiture therefore should be taken first while Ozekhome insisted that the applicants motion should come first as it is challenging the order obtained by the federal government in error.
Justice Nyako adjourned the matter to Thursday next week for hearing.