House of Representatives Committee on Public Petitions ordered banks to unfreeze Patience Jonathan’s accounts

The House of Representatives Committee on Public Petitions, on Tuesday ordered banks to unfreeze accounts belonging to former First Lady, Mrs Patience Jonathan.

According to them, the freezing was carried out without no specific restriction orders from any competent court of law.

The matter came up at the resumed investigative hearing by the committee on the petition by Jonathan’s wife, over alleged harassments by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and other government agencies.

While appearing before the committee, representative of Granville Abibo (SAN) & Co law firm, Mr Ayodeji Adedipe, told the committee that the banks, including Ecobank, Union Bank, First Bank, Diamond and Fidelity Bank froze accounts belonging to Mrs Jonathan, her NGO and even some belonging to her relatives, based on just letters from EFCC and not court orders as should be the case.

Also, Mr Adedipe informed the committee that Mrs Jonathan’s personal salary account with Ecobank was frozen.

The Chairman of the committee, Hon Uzoma Nkem-Abonta in his ruling said, “we are not siding anybody, but the committee hereby direct all the banks concerned to defreeze all the accounts that have no specific restraining order from any court, or the EFCC.”