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patience jonathan |
The Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission on Wednesday vowed that the wife of ex-President Goodluck
Jonathan, Patience, will never go scot-free if its investigation against
her produces evidence that she was involved in any corrupt practices.
The EFCC Deputy Director of Operations,
Mr. Iliyasu Kwarbai, said this after receiving a petition against
Patience and the ruling All Progressives Congress from a group of
protesters, under the aegis of Human Rights Defenders and Advocacy
Centre, who marched to the EFCC office in Ikoyi, Lagos.
The group submitted a petition titled,
“Demand for arrest, prosecution of Patience Jonathan, probe of the APC
campaign funds and no more sacred cows in the anti-corruption crusade.”
In the said petition signed by its
President, Queen Ameh, and the Chairman of its Board of Trustees,
Innocent Agbo, the HRDAC accused the EFCC of being selective in its
anti-graft war, and wondered why Patience was still walking freely in
spite of the evidence, which they said the EFCC had against her.
The HRDAC asked the EFCC to change its
slogan, “Nobody is above the law,” since it had found it difficult to go
after the likes of Patience, ex-Presidents, including Ibrahim
Babangida, Abdulsalami Abubakar, Olusegun Obasanjo and Goodluck
Jonathan.
The protesters also challenged the EFCC
to probe the source of the election campaign funds of the ruling APC in
the 2015 elections, while also demanding a probe of the national leader
of the APC, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, and the ex-Rivers State Governor,
Rotimi Amaechi.
Addressing the EFCC, Agbo said, “You
have found evidence incriminating Patience Jonathan but we are surprised
that Patience Jonathan is still allowed to be walking freely, and even
had the audacity to take the EFCC to court to demand the release of her
money to her.
“I have been to this same EFCC to bail
several people over the issue of N500,000 passing through their accounts
innocently. They were invited, they came voluntarily and you people
held them. But we have somebody with our money, $15m which is N6bn,
walking freely. We have the issue of Badamasi Babangida; it is open
knowledge that N12bn gulf money was missing under his regime, nothing is
done; we are aware of Obasanjo and the $16bn power funds, you people
are not investigating it; we are aware of the petition against Amaechi
to the EFCC; we are aware that the APC did not get the funds for its
election campaign from only Buhari’s account. We are aware that you are
probing the Peoples Democratic Party, why are you not probing the APC?”
In response, Kwarbai said the EFCC was
not selective in its anti-graft fight, explaining that it does not
arrest people arbitrarily but worked based on petitions submitted to it.
He also said the general public might
not understand that investigation of crime was a long process, which he
said, involved visit to so many establishments and institutions.
He said, “Let me tell you, there is no
sacred cow; anybody who is found wanting, who involves himself or
herself in corrupt practices will not be spared. I have received your
petition, it is here and what do we do? We go into investigation
immediately. Now we have seen the name of Patience Jonathan; it is here.
If she is found wanting, she will never go scot-free. So also any other
person no matter how highly placed he is.
“We must sanitise our country and
provide a very good environment that people can come and invest in; an
economy that is devoid of any economic and financial crime. So, we are
happy to see you here; we have received it and we are going to go into
action. I am going to inform my chairman that you were here and that
we’ll commence investigation immediately.”
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