The House of Representatives Committee on Public Petitions has directed six commercial banks to free accounts operated by former first lady, Patience Jonathan.
The Uzoma Nkem-Abonta (Abia-PDP)-led committee gave the order on Tuesday in Abuja at a hearing on a petition by Patience.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had directed Union Bank, First Bank, EcoBank, Diamond Bank, Fidelity Bank and Skye Bank to freeze her accounts over allegations of corruption.
Union Bank lawyer, Kenneth Otowo, told the panel that the bank placed Jonathan’s account under a ‘precautionary restriction’ following a directive by the EFCC.
“The letter was dated March 21, 2016, so we had to act based on that,’’ he said.
But the committee said the bank could only take such decision if EFCC proved that it had
obtained a court order to that effect.
“Until EFCC proves otherwise, I’ll ask you to remove the precautionary restriction on the account. Let me tell you, whatever you’ll do, you must follow the law. A bank can’t hold a legal entity to ransom,” the committee chairman said.
He also ordered all other banks that all the accounts that have no specific pending order from the courts should be unfrozen.
The committee also gave EFCC’s Ag. Chairman Ibrahim Magu up to October 4 to appear before it or have an arrest warrant issued against him.
It then asked Patience’s lawyers and the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) to reconcile their positions on an alleged tax default of over N10 million.
FIRS had said that Aridolf Resort Wellness and SPA, owned by the former first lady, refused to pay its taxes after several reminders.
Her lawyers insisted that they had paid all their taxes to the agency.
The EFCC and Patience have been in courts over series of corruption allegations since 2015. Apart from the ban on her accounts, billions of naira belonging to her have also been forfeited to the government.