N104m allegedly laundered by Patience, wife of Bayelsa State Governor, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, has been temporarily seized by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commision.
The seizure came on the heels of an ex parte application before a Federal High Court, Abuja by the Chairman of the EFCC, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu.
The commission had in the application, a copy of which was obtained by our correspondents on Sunday, said it suspected that the N104m was public money.
It said that Patience laundered the sum in two tranches � N70m and N34m � through one Mrs. Nancy Ebere Nwosu.
Nwosu, a business associate of Patience, is said to have made statements to the EFCC incriminating the governor�s wife.
The EFCC, in an application seeking an ex parte order to freeze the sum, told a Federal High Court, Abuja, that it got a whiff of the laundered sum through a Suspicious Transaction Report to its Intelligence Unit by a second generation bank.
The EFCC said in the application that the transactions were made on May 3 and 5, 2006 by one Hanner Offor through an account number 3292010060711 held by Nansolyvan Public Relations Limited.
The EFCC said Nwosu had been evasive in her earlier statements.
But when confronted with further evidence, she said, �I voluntary elect to state as follows: My earlier statements were made while I was very disorganised by the overwhelming questions I had to deal with.�
She then admitted that Mr. Godwill Oba told her that Mrs.Jonathan wanted to give him (Oba) some work and that she (Mrs. Jonathan) would advance the mobilisation money to him (Oba) through her (Nwosu) account.
She said, �When Oba came for the money to be withdrawn, I confirmed from Her Excellency, Mrs. Patience Jonathan that she wanted the intended project money to be withdrawn.
�I know that Her Excellency is related to Oba.
�I confirmed from Her Excellency that the money could be made in favour of Oba.�
�Investigations into the laundering of the N70m into Finviclaud with Access Bank Plc cheque revealed that the money was deposited into the account with a First Bank of Nigeria Plc cheque number 3292010060711 for N70m, a personal current account drawn on Nansolyvan Public Relations Limited at the Niger House Marina branch.�
It added that Nwosu then transferred the N70m from the account into another account operated by Fivviclaud at the Access Bank Plc, Apapa branch, Lagos.�
�Our investigations at the two banks � First Bank and Access Bank � showed that Nwosu of No 2A Araromi Street, Lagos Island, is the sole signatory to the two accounts,� the commission said.
According to the EFCC, Nwosu attempted to transfer N69m from the account to Oba (now at large) through the account with the Access Bank in order to conceal the source of the monies.
The EFCC said that after the discoveries, it invited Nwosu and asked her questions on the source and purpose for which the funds were laundered into the account of Nansolyvan.
The commission concluded that during its investigations, it found out that Patience instructed Offor to launder the N104m.
While issuing the order to freeze the accounts, on August 22, 2006, Justice Anwuli Chikere said, �Leave is hereby granted to the Executive Chairman of the EFCC to … freeze the bank accounts of the persons referred to as the account holders pending the conclusion of the investigation of the activities of the said persons in connection with their involvement in the acts of money laundering and other economic and financial crimes related offences.
�That the accounts of the person named in the schedule are hereby temporarily forfeited to the Federal Government of Nigeria.�
As the time she gave the directive, Chikere was with the Federal High Court, Abuja. She is now with the Kaduna Division.
When contacted on Sunday, the Head of Media and Publicity of the EFCC, Mr. Osita Nwajah, said, �I have no information that the order has been vacated.�