In her bid to prove the $8.4 million and N7.4 billion temporary forfeited to the Federal Government are legitimately hers, wife of the former President, Mrs Patience Jonathan, went to court on Tuesday with five videos.
The videos were played to the trial judge, Justice Mojisola Olatoregun of Federal High Court sitting in Lagos, by the former First Lady’s lawyer as a proof the monies were legitimate.
In April 2018, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) through an ex parte application got an interim order for the forfeiture of the monies.
The commission had again in October 2018, through its counsel, Mr Rotimi Oyedepo, moved for the final forfeiture of the sums.
Respondents in the matter are Mrs Patience Jonathan, Globus Integrated Services Ltd, Finchley Top Homes Ltd., Am-Pm Global Network Ltd, Pagmat Oil and Gas Ltd, Magel Resort Ltd, and Esther Oba.
However, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Mike Ozekhome, who represented some of the respondents opposed the move and prayed the court to instead hear his counter-affidavits.
When the matter came up on Tuesday, January 15, 2019, Ozekhome, who appeared for the third to sixth respondents told the court that exhibit F5 of his processes proved that the third respondent (Finchley Homes) was a company, and he showed video evidence of various outfits legitimately run by the company.
He presented to the court two videos and they were played via a projector in the courtroom.
The first video of a period of 25 minutes, showed business outlets and products of Finchley Homes Ltd (third respondent), including the interior and exterior home decorations, household utensils, textiles, drinks, noodles, furniture, its warehouse, as well as various pickup vans belonging to the company.
The second video clip of four minutes further showed the business outfit of the sixth respondent (Magel Resort Ltd), located in Otueke, Bayelsa State, a luxurious hotel and suites with well-equipped IT centres.
After that, another SAN, Ifedayo Adedipe, who represented the first respondent, exhibited three more videos, showing activities of the Women for Change Initiative, a Non-Governmental Organisation, linked to Mrs Jonathan.
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One of the videos, which was the third video played in the courtroom, ran for 10 minutes and showed the flag off of the initiative’s campaign while the fourth video which played for 10 minutes showed aspects of the initiative’s empowerment programmes for women through the distribution of bags of rice and other food items.
The fifth video ran for seven minutes and it displayed a visit of the wife of the former President to Katsina State, to flag off the initiative.
After the video clips were played, EFCC’s counsel said he had not been served with the affidavit of the respondents showing some of the exhibits displayed in court.
The trial judge, Justice Olatoregun later adjourned till Wednesday for the continuation of the trial.
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