Wife of former President Goodluck
Jonathan, Patience, on Wednesday sought the protection of the House of
Representatives against alleged harassment by the operatives of the
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
The former President’s wife laid a
petition before the House in Abuja, complaining that her fundamental
human rights were infringed upon by the anti-graft agency.
A Peoples Democratic Party member of
the House from Delta State, Mr. Lovette Idisi, had submitted the
petition on behalf of Jonathan’s wife.
However, he told members that the document was signed by youth groups from six ethnic groups in the country.
The youth groups were the Ijaw Youth
Council; Ohanaeze Ndigbo Youth Council; Ndokwa Youth Council; Arewa
Consultative Forum; Yoruba Youth Council; and the Middle Belt Youth
Council.
Idisi, while conveying the complaints of
Mrs. Jonathan to the House, said under the Nigerian constitution, mere
allegations did not amount to guilt until a proper conviction by a
competent court of law.
He added, “This petition is in line with
Section 36 where every citizen is presumed innocent until proven
guilty. Mr. Speaker, the constant harassment of the former first lady is
in a petition emanating from her that was sent to my office.
“With the leave of the House, I seek your permission to lay the petition before the House.”
The Speaker, Mr. Yakubu Dogara, referred the petition to the House Committee on Public Petitions for hearing.
It is expected that the former President’ wife will come to the National Assembly when invited, to defend the petition.
The key issue raised by the groups on
behalf of Jonathan was that the EFCC had frozen her accounts and those
of some of her close associates on account of corruption allegations.
They noted that some of the affected
individuals were not under investigation by the anti-graft agency, but
the agency still froze their accounts.
Part of the document read, “A simple
cost benefit analysis of the EFCC’s current approach would reveal that
it is harming this government’s strategic interest far more than the
brief publicity it gets from its current modus operandi…
“We are urging you to caution and rein
in the EFCC to operate within the confines of its enabling laws, lest it
becomes victim of the corrupting influence of absolute power.
Mrs. Jonathan and the EFCC have had a running battle of late over the $31m in some companies’ accounts frozen by the EFCC.
Jonathan is already in court over the matter
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