Posted on: 08:17 Tue, 11 Jul 2017

The immediate past First Lady of Nigeria, Patience Jonathan, has accused the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission of sending assassins after her.



The wife of the former President Goodluck Jonathan, Mrs. Patience Jonathan, has accused the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission of sending assassins after her.

According to The Punch, Mrs. Jonathan said she had survived two of such attempts but urged the House of Representatives to quickly intervene before the EFCC would succeed in the alleged plot to eliminate her.

In a letter written by her lawyers, Granville Abibo (SAN) & Co, Mrs. Jonathan said, “There have been assassination attempts, at least twice, between February and April, 2017, against our client ostensibly by the operatives of the EFCC along the Yenagoa-Mbaima Road, Bayelsa State, in furtherance of its unlawful actions against the former first family.”
Patience also accused the anti-graft agency of bugging her telephone lines, adding that agents of the commission had been sending threatening text messages to her.

The former President’s wife said, “The EFCC and its agents have repeatedly bugged the personal telephones of our client and her relations through its many operatives and has inundated her with numerous threatening calls and text messages.”
She said apart from the EFCC, other agencies of the government, like the Federal Inland Revenue Service had intimidated her.

Patience alleged that officials of the FIRS stormed her hotel in Bayelsa State two months ago and vandalised its properties.

Mrs. Jonathan added, “On May 3, 2017, officials of the FIRS, in a convoy of about 20 trucks and over 70 personnel, raided our client’s NGO – Aridolf Jo Resort Wellness and Spa Limited – situated at Kpansia Expressway, Bayelsa State, and orchestrated a massive destruction of personal properties belonging to our client without any lawful court order or search warrant and caused mayhem there under the guise of trying to collect unpaid taxes without following any due process provided by law to do so.”

She stated that apart from her bank accounts, the commission had frozen those of her relatives and her NGOs which she said were only carrying out charity work for the benefit of Nigerians.
Patience said the anti-graft agency had also seized properties belonging to her NGOs.

The spokesman for the EFCC, Mr. Wilson Uwujaren, refused to react to the allegations levelled against the commission by Mrs. Jonathan when he was contacted on the telephone on Monday.

Meanwhile, the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, on Monday, said the allegation by Mrs. Jonathan that the agency was harassing her was misleading and spurious.
The NDLEA also stated that the former President’s wife’s allegation was an attempt to take issue with the agency as it had no case against her.

Mrs. Jonathan had petitioned the House of Representatives through her lawyer, Granville Abibo, alleging that she was being subjected to continuous harassment by the EFCC and the NDLEA.

But the anti-narcotic agency, in a statement on Monday by its Head, Public Affairs, Mitchell Ofoyeju, said any individual, found culpable of drug trafficking and other related offences, would be duly prosecuted by the agency irrespective of his or her status.
Ofoyeju said, “Mrs. Jonathan’s allegation is spurious and misleading.

NDLEA has no case against the former First Lady. It is rather surprising that the agency was mentioned in her petition when she is not being investigated.

“The NDLEA remains committed to the fight against drug cultivation, trafficking and abuse. It will not harass but those who violate the provisions of the Act, no matter their status, shall not go unpunished.”