Nigerians to Patience Jonathan: Explain how you got $20m.

  Mixed reactions, yesterday, trailed revelations of the discovery of $20 million in the accounts of companies and personal account of the immediate past First Lady, Mrs. Patience Jonathan. 

 The money, which is in a local bank and which have been claimed by Mrs. Jonathan were placed on a No Debit Order in the course of investigations into the financial affairs of Mr. Waripamo Dudafa, who served as Special Adviser on Domestic Affairs to former President Goodluck Jonathan. Upon her insistence through an affidavit that the funds belong to her and should not be released, some prominent Nigerians, at the weekend expressed mixed reactions on the issue. Former Lagos State Commissioner for Police, Alhaji Abaubakar Tsav, former Special Adviser to the President on National Assembly in the Second Republic, Alhaji Tanko Yakasai, Second Republic member of the House of Representatives, Dr. Junaid Mohammed and Comrade Debo Adeshina, chairman of the Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders, CACOL spoke in separate interviews with Vanguard. While Adeshina and Mohammed submitted that she should forfeit the money, Tsav said she should be let free if no one submitted any petition against her. Yakasai on his part called for a holistic approach to the anti-corruption fight so that it would not be seen as a personal campaign by the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC against targeted individuals. She should forfeit the money — Mohammed Affirming that Mrs. Jonathan cannot justify how he made such an amount of money as a civil servant, Dr. Mohammed said: “I knew this woman and her husband between 1992 and 1996 when I was working at Oil Minerals Producing and Development Commission, OMPADEC. Technically, before Jonathan became the President, she was still a civil servant. So, how can she justify that amount of cash. “ But now that EFCC has gotten hold of such an amount in her account, the money should be confiscated because this country needs all the necessary finance t

                                       

                                                      *Patience Jonathan

She should be charged to court if guilty — CACOL Comrade Adeniran of CACOL on his part insisted that the First Lady should explain to Nigerians how she amassed such humongous amount of money. “The anti-corruption agencies have a job to do and don’t have to wait a moment further since she has confirmed that the money belongs to her. They do not need a petition, particularly the EFCC. This has to do with money laundering. If the money had been in naira, the ICPC would have taken over the case because of her position as a former public officer. How did she come about such an amount in foreign currencies? Is she a trader in foreign currencies? She should be charged to court if the money was gotten through corrupt means.” It may amount to witch-hunting — Tsav On his part, a retired Police Commissioner, Abubakar Tsav said: ‘’Ordinarily, she is not supposed to have such an amount in her account because she was only a civil servant. But this is a former First Lady who may have gotten money from contractors, gifts given to her and other questionable means. If no one has come to complain, nobody will invite her and they can leave her otherwise, people may view it as a witch-hunting.” Yakasai on his part also called for caution as he said that the problem of corruption in the country would be better addressed if dealt with holistically. He said: “My attitude is that corruption in Nigeria was institutionalised by the military regime and if we want to fight corruption, we should fight it from its origins. Let us look at the root cause of the corruption and deal with it, but dealing with the individuals is just like a scratch on the surface. It doesn’t solve the problem.” Saying that the administration should take off by dealing with the reports on the power probe conducted by the Ndudi Elumelu Committee on Power in the House of Representatives, the Farouk Lawan report on subsidy and the Haroun Adamu report on the Petroleum Trust Fund, PTF, Yakasai said: “If Mrs. Jonathan claims that the money is her own, she has to state how she came about the money, I have no quarrel with that. It is normal. It is a scratch on the back. If you don’t tackle the problem from the root cause, you are not going to get anywhere.”