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| Patience Jonathan |
The Court of Appeal, Lagos Division, will today replace one of the judges on the three-man panel hearing an appeal filed by the wife of ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, Patience, against the freezing of her Skye Bank account with a balance of $5.9m.
Patience is seeking the order of the court to stop the permanent forfeiture of her $5.9m and N2,421,953,522.78 to the Federal Government.
The suit, which was assigned to Justices John Ikyeh, Abimbola Obaseki-Adejumo and Abraham Georgewill, was stalled following the withdrawal of one of the members of the panel.
Justice Ikyeh, who presided over the appeal, noted that three judges were required to form a quorum before an appeal could be heard and further adjourned till Monday.
“One of us is going to recuse himself from this case for personal reasons, so we are not complete. Two of us cannot make a quorum,” Justice Ikyeh said.
Patience’s appeal started when the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission got an interim order from Justice Mojisola Olatoregun of the Federal High Court to freeze her account.
The EFFC while obtaining the freezing order told the judge that the $5.9m found in Patience’s account was suspected to be proceeds of crime.
Apart from the Skye Bank account with $5.9m, the EFCC also obtained a freezing order in respect of an Ecobank account with a balance of N2.4bn which was opened in the name of one La Wari Furniture and Bath Limited.
Patience lawyer, Mr. Ifedayo Adedipe (SAN), had on June 15, filed an application praying that further proceedings in the case should be suspended until the outcome of the appeal stating that his client had gone on appeal to challenge the freezing order.
Justice Olatoregun on May 22, granted the application of Adedipe for a stay.
