15/9/2016
- By Aluzu Ebikebuna Augustine

It will be a sad reminder of 2006 if Mrs. Dame Patience Jonathan is not made to explain how she came about the said $31.4m belonging to her. It can be recalled in that year that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) seized a whopping N104m and $13.5m allegedly laundered by Mrs. Patience Jonathan, wife of the then Bayelsa state Governor. The money was suspected by the anti-graft agency to have been heisted by her from public funds.

Saved from prosecution by 'impunity' which largely characterized the 16 year PDP reign at the echelon of our political Stata. Patience was said to have laundered the N104m in two tranches -N70m and N34m- through one Mrs. Nancy Ebere Nwosu, a business associate of Patience.

Nancy deposed to an affidavit incriminating the wife of the man President Obasanjo was preparing for the office of Vice-President and so it necessarily adds up as why the case was swept under the rug. Chief Goodluck Jonathan, the Governor of Bayelsa state on September 12, 2006 was said to be willing to corporate with the EFCC to unravel the puzzlement surrounding the N104m alleged money laundering to which his wife was linked.

But just as Proverbs 12:4 says "A virtuous woman is a crown to her husband but she that maketh ashamed is a rottenness to his bones", Patience would go on to make another scandalous headline for a second time in a year. Her kleptomania was once again brought to the fore when the EFCC seized $13.5m from her September 2006. It is surprising that Nigerians did not cry witch-hunt then but a relatively unknown Jonathan was left in the hands of SA and PA's 'wannabe' from Bayelsa state to jostle to make press statements in solidarity with the vice President hopeful.

The question that keeps prodding sane minds is what legitimate business was Patience into then to amass such wealth? What investments yielded her such mouth watering benefits in 2006? Was she paying her taxes? It is dubitable that she came across such amount legitimately. Her husband was Deputy Governor for 8 years between 1999-2005 and she was never involved in money scandal, not until he was made a Governor following the infamous way Chief DSP Alamieyeseigha was removed which set in as a harbinger of profligacy and high scale looting in the state.

How can any sane Nigerian come to the conclusion that Patience Jonathan net worth at 2006 was N104m and $13.5m she allegedly tried to launder? How much more now with the N15m she claims to be using to settle medical bills? That is N6.3bn going be my the current exchange rate. Such stupefying amount is only but a shopworn of how precarious she and her husband left Bayelsa state financially hemorrhage.

There should be no room for benignancy on the part of the EFCC as Patience now feels she is above the law having escaped prosecution twice, she must be invited by the anti-graft agency for questioning. Claiming the N31.4m found in the account of Waripamowei Dudafa and demanding the EFCC to remove the No Debit/Freezing Order placed on the account by EFCC without explaining how she came about such amount is tantamount to dancing over the hardship currently faced by Nigerians and calling 'nonesense' the anti-corruption crusade by the federal government. If allowed to go free this time around, one wonders what she might claim possession of in time to come, maybe Bayelsa state.

The EFCC should invite her for questioning and prosecuted if found guilty.


Nigeria is not a banana republic.

http://nextnewslive.com/patience-jonathan-and-20m-accounts-investigation-does-not-mean-one-is-guilty-ii-e-a-aluzu/