TheCable

Patience Jonathan, wife of former President Goodluck Jonathan, on Monday withdrew money from her unfrozen Skye Bank account.

She visited the bank a few days after Mojisola Olatoregun, a federal high court judge, ordered the de-freezing of the account containing $5.8m.

A source told TheCable that Jonathan arrived at the Maitama, Abuja branch of the bank in the company of some aides.

He said the transaction, which took some time, was however successful.

The source did not say the exact amount that she took out of her account.

But NAN said she met a brickwall.

The agency said the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission had procured a stay-of-execution of Olatoregun’s judgement and also simultaneously filed an appeal against it.

Unconfirmed reports said she wanted to withdraw as much as $1million, but was given $100,000 by the bank.

She was said to have returned at 10am and had a closed-door meeting with an executive director of the bank.

She finally left the bank at 4:05pm but declined to speak to reporters who sought to know why she was there.

One of her aides, who declined to disclose his name, told journalists that “everything was okay”.

Olatoregun’s order was sequel to an application argued by Adedayo Adedipe, counsel to the former first lady.

Adedipe had urged the court to unfreeze the account on the grounds that Jonathan was not a party in the suit leading to the order made by the court.

Adedipe while citing judicial authorities contended that the order was an abuse of court process as the court had no jurisdiction to make an order against a party that is not a party in a suit filed before the court.

Sometime last year, based on an application filed before the court by the EFCC, the court had ordered that the account be frozen on the grounds that it contained suspected proceeds of crime.