June 15, 2008
Case Closed?
Nigeria's anti-corruption agency, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, abandons N104m money laundering case against, Patience, the country's Vice President's wife
Is Patience, wife of Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan, untouchable? That is the question on the lips of some Nigerians who are wondering why the EFCC is yet to prosecute the VP's wife and her accomplices in the N104m money laundering case uncovered by the anti-corruption agency since 2006. The EFCC, which had done a good job of fighting graft in Nigeria, had on September 11, 2006, seized about N104m allegedly laundered by Patience through some fronts.
The vice-president's wife had, according to the EFCC, laundered the sum in two tranches-N70m and N34m- through one Mrs. Nancy Ebere Nwosu, said to be her business associate, who reportedly 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 in Abuja, Nigeria's capital city, that it got wind 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 commission concluded that during its investigations, it found out that Patience instructed Offor to launder the N104m through Nwosu.
In her ruling on the application 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."
Patience allegedly committed the offence when her husband was governor of Bayelsa State. The former Chairman of the EFCC, Mr. Nuhu Ribadu, told the Senate in September 2006 that she was the only governor's wife being investigated for money laundering. At the time, Patience insisted that she did no wrong, saying the allegations were manufactured by political opponents who were bent on destroying her husband. "We are aware that the said Nancy Ebere Nwosu is a very remote relation of Her Excellency who has lived abroad for several years," said Dennis Sami, who was then a special assistant to Jonathan. "She is a successful businesswoman of no little means whose business concerns do not involve Mrs. Jonathan," he added.
Nigerians expected EFCC's investigation to resolve Patience's culpability or otherwise. But close to two years after the offence was allegedly committed, the report of the EFCC's investigation has remained carefully cloaked in secrecy and the vice-president's wife and her accomplices have yet to be brought to court.
A source at the commission familiar with the case told CIJN that since the beginning of the matter, there had been frantic attempts to derail investigation.
He said pressures on the agency by highly- placed government officials to hands-off the case intensified after Patience's husband became vice-president. "I can tell you confidently that investigation into the matter has been suspended and the case has been swept under the carpet," the source said.
That tally with the disclosures made to CIJN by another official of the agency who felt concerned that his agency had compromised on the case. He said Patience's file had been withdrawn from investigators and that investigations had been suspended.
According to him, the last action that was taken on the matter was the seizing of the N104m which he said was paid into a special account preparatory to its being returned to the Bayelsa State government.
He further disclosed that the agency decided to stay action on the matter so as not to embarrass Jonathan, who became vice-president shortly after his wife committed the offence. The source confirmed that neither Patience nor her accomplices had been charged to court.
"Recall that Patience committed the offence in September 2006. By December of that year, her husband had become the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party. He became vice-president in May 2007.
"The commission was pressured into believing that continuing with the case might embarrass the vice-president and send a wrong signal to the international community. As it is now, the matter appears to have died a natural death," he explained.
The Head of Media and Publicity of the EFCC, Mr. Osita Nwajah, said he had no information on the status of the case. "All I can say is that there is nothing on my table on the matter," he said on the telephone.
Some activists and opposition politicians are concerned about this development. In their view, the failure to prosecute the vice-president's wife was yet another classic demonstration of government's insincerity in prosecuting the anti-corruption war.
Osita Okechukwu, National Publicity Secretary of the Conference of Nigerian Political Parties, an umbrella body of the 49 opposition parties in the country, said by its action, the EFCC had created the impression that some persons were sacred cows, adding that it would be a big blow to the anti-corruption war if Patience was left off the hook simply because her husband is Nigeria's vice-president.
"We have always said it that the anti-corruption war is selective. This is yet another evidence of our claim," he added.
A columnist with THE GUARDIAN, Mr. Sonala Olumhense, agrees entirely with Okechukwu. Writing in his column on October 28, 2007, Olumhense said with the EFCC's reluctance in bringing her to book, Patience had grown in profile as an untouchable and could comfortably scoff at the war against corruption.
That sentiment was shared by the Niger Delta Development Monitoring and Corporate Watch, a local non-governmental organization, which last June challenged the EFCC to publish its report on the vice-president's wife.
Such calls may not have made any impact on the EFCC as the vice president's wife and her accomplices are free. Yet, President Umaru Yar'Adua and the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Michael Aondoakaa, whose ministry oversees the EFCC and other anti-graft agencies, had assured shortly after their administration came to power that there would be no sacred cow in the fight against corruption.
"It is no longer going to be anybody shielding corruption. We are not going to target war on corruption on governors alone but on everybody that is indicted by bodies authorized by law. And where criminal charges are clearly demonstrated in the report, we are going to carry out prosecution," Aondoakaa had told journalists when questions were raised about the suspicion that the government was shielding some of its cronies from prosecution.
But Okechukwu, whose group has also consistently been making case for a probe of ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo administration, said nobody, would take the anti-graft war seriously for as long as the EFCC's report on the vice-president's wife remained under the carpet.
For more information, visit www.cijnigeria.org
Nigeria's anti-corruption agency, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, abandons N104m money laundering case against, Patience, the country's Vice President's wife
Is Patience, wife of Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan, untouchable? That is the question on the lips of some Nigerians who are wondering why the EFCC is yet to prosecute the VP's wife and her accomplices in the N104m money laundering case uncovered by the anti-corruption agency since 2006. The EFCC, which had done a good job of fighting graft in Nigeria, had on September 11, 2006, seized about N104m allegedly laundered by Patience through some fronts.
The vice-president's wife had, according to the EFCC, laundered the sum in two tranches-N70m and N34m- through one Mrs. Nancy Ebere Nwosu, said to be her business associate, who reportedly 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 in Abuja, Nigeria's capital city, that it got wind 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 commission concluded that during its investigations, it found out that Patience instructed Offor to launder the N104m through Nwosu.
In her ruling on the application 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."
Patience allegedly committed the offence when her husband was governor of Bayelsa State. The former Chairman of the EFCC, Mr. Nuhu Ribadu, told the Senate in September 2006 that she was the only governor's wife being investigated for money laundering. At the time, Patience insisted that she did no wrong, saying the allegations were manufactured by political opponents who were bent on destroying her husband. "We are aware that the said Nancy Ebere Nwosu is a very remote relation of Her Excellency who has lived abroad for several years," said Dennis Sami, who was then a special assistant to Jonathan. "She is a successful businesswoman of no little means whose business concerns do not involve Mrs. Jonathan," he added.
Nigerians expected EFCC's investigation to resolve Patience's culpability or otherwise. But close to two years after the offence was allegedly committed, the report of the EFCC's investigation has remained carefully cloaked in secrecy and the vice-president's wife and her accomplices have yet to be brought to court.
A source at the commission familiar with the case told CIJN that since the beginning of the matter, there had been frantic attempts to derail investigation.
He said pressures on the agency by highly- placed government officials to hands-off the case intensified after Patience's husband became vice-president. "I can tell you confidently that investigation into the matter has been suspended and the case has been swept under the carpet," the source said.
That tally with the disclosures made to CIJN by another official of the agency who felt concerned that his agency had compromised on the case. He said Patience's file had been withdrawn from investigators and that investigations had been suspended.
According to him, the last action that was taken on the matter was the seizing of the N104m which he said was paid into a special account preparatory to its being returned to the Bayelsa State government.
He further disclosed that the agency decided to stay action on the matter so as not to embarrass Jonathan, who became vice-president shortly after his wife committed the offence. The source confirmed that neither Patience nor her accomplices had been charged to court.
"Recall that Patience committed the offence in September 2006. By December of that year, her husband had become the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party. He became vice-president in May 2007.
"The commission was pressured into believing that continuing with the case might embarrass the vice-president and send a wrong signal to the international community. As it is now, the matter appears to have died a natural death," he explained.
The Head of Media and Publicity of the EFCC, Mr. Osita Nwajah, said he had no information on the status of the case. "All I can say is that there is nothing on my table on the matter," he said on the telephone.
Some activists and opposition politicians are concerned about this development. In their view, the failure to prosecute the vice-president's wife was yet another classic demonstration of government's insincerity in prosecuting the anti-corruption war.
Osita Okechukwu, National Publicity Secretary of the Conference of Nigerian Political Parties, an umbrella body of the 49 opposition parties in the country, said by its action, the EFCC had created the impression that some persons were sacred cows, adding that it would be a big blow to the anti-corruption war if Patience was left off the hook simply because her husband is Nigeria's vice-president.
"We have always said it that the anti-corruption war is selective. This is yet another evidence of our claim," he added.
A columnist with THE GUARDIAN, Mr. Sonala Olumhense, agrees entirely with Okechukwu. Writing in his column on October 28, 2007, Olumhense said with the EFCC's reluctance in bringing her to book, Patience had grown in profile as an untouchable and could comfortably scoff at the war against corruption.
That sentiment was shared by the Niger Delta Development Monitoring and Corporate Watch, a local non-governmental organization, which last June challenged the EFCC to publish its report on the vice-president's wife.
Such calls may not have made any impact on the EFCC as the vice president's wife and her accomplices are free. Yet, President Umaru Yar'Adua and the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Michael Aondoakaa, whose ministry oversees the EFCC and other anti-graft agencies, had assured shortly after their administration came to power that there would be no sacred cow in the fight against corruption.
"It is no longer going to be anybody shielding corruption. We are not going to target war on corruption on governors alone but on everybody that is indicted by bodies authorized by law. And where criminal charges are clearly demonstrated in the report, we are going to carry out prosecution," Aondoakaa had told journalists when questions were raised about the suspicion that the government was shielding some of its cronies from prosecution.
But Okechukwu, whose group has also consistently been making case for a probe of ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo administration, said nobody, would take the anti-graft war seriously for as long as the EFCC's report on the vice-president's wife remained under the carpet.
For more information, visit www.cijnigeria.org
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