Akin Kupolokun
Reprieve came the way of former first lady, Dame Patience Jonathan, as a Federal high court sitting in Lagos on Thursday unfreezes her account with a balance of $5,842,316.66 domiciled with Skye bank Plc.
The order of the court was sequel to an application filed and argued before the court by her lawyer, Mr Adedayo Adedipe (SAN) leading seven other lawyers.
Adedipe had in the application urged the court to unfreeze the account on the ground that the former First Lady was not a party to the suit leading to the order made by the court freezing the account.
The Senior Advocate of Nigeria contended that the suit was an abuse of court process as the court has no jurisdiction to make an order against a party that is not a party in a suit filed before the court.
The EFCC who initiated the suit leading to the order made by the court freezing the account did not file any response to the application filed to discharge the order.
In her ruling, the presiding judge, Mojisola Olatoregun while upholding the submission of Mr Adedipe discharged the order freezing the account.
It will be recalled that sometime last year, the court, based on an application filed by EFCC, had ordered that the account of the former First lady containing the sum of $5,842,316.66 domiciled with Skye bank should be frozen on the ground that the money is suspected to be proceeds of crime.
Also affected by the order are five companies and one Esther Oba who were having total sums of N7, 418,829,290.94 in six different commercial banks.
The order of the court was sequel to an affidavit in support of Ex-parte originating summons sworn to by Abdullahi Tukur an investigating officer of the Economic and Financial crime Commission (EFCC) and filed before the court by EFCC prosecutor Rotimi Oyedepo.
Mr Tukur averred that there is an urgent need for the court to direct the managers of the bank accounts contained in the schedule filed with the summons FHC/L/CS/1343/16 to in the interim, forfeit the money contain therein to prevent further tampering with the account being sought to be attached.