NOT YET UHURU…BUSINESS ASSOCIATES DEVELOP COLD FEET AS EFCC SWOOPS ON FORMER FIRST LADY, PATIENCE JONATHAN, ASSETS
Those who summon the storm must never cringe from a storm cloud. But having beckoned the storm, Patience Jonathan cringes from its ravage like a spaniel fleeing the gusts of a snowstorm. While her husband, Goodluck Jonathan, was President, Patience wore chaos like a crown and stirred the hornet’s nest with reckless abandon. She elevated strife and cut- throat politics from an eyesore to an art form. But no sooner did her husband lose his re- election bid than her impotence dawn on her. Patience is not so powerful and influential after all. Not with the incumbent government anyway. Little wonder she is on the radar of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission ( EFCC).
Recently, the EFCC froze Patience Jonathan’s personal bank account titled ‘ Patience Ibifaka Jonathan.’
But while the spat between the EFCC and the former First Lady generates uproar, several businessmen and women who had done business with her in the past have developed cold feet. Many of them are reportedly planning to approach the EFCC and give themselves up to the anti- graft agency in pursuit of a ‘ soft landing.’ The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission ( EFCC) is set to apply for the final forfeiture of choice properties allegedly owned by the former first lady.
But the commission has been having difficulty in getting the original titles of the assets. They include Aridolf Resort, Wellness and Spa and eight others.
The anti- graft commission may ask the court to compel the agencies with the titles in Bayelsa and Rivers states to release them. These are indeed the worst of times for Patience Jonathan. It would be recalled that she held court and paraded herself like an empress while her husband was Nigeria’s most powerful and influential figure. Soon she evolved to become the most powerful voice and conspicuous face of her husband’s administration often to the detriment of her husband and former ruling People’s Democratic Party ( PDP).