House of Reps orders 6 banks to unfreeze Patience Jonathan's accounts (Details, pics)

The House of Representatives Committee on Public Petitions has directed six commercial banks to unblock accounts operated by former first lady, Patience Jonathan.

Uzoma Nkem-Abonta a PDP senator from Abia who chaired the committee gave the directive on Tuesday, September 19, in Abuja.

According to reports, the affected banks are Union bank, First bank, EcoBank, Diamond bank, Fidelity bank and Skye bank.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had earlier directed the banks to freeze the accounts over allegations of corruption.

Kenneth Otowo the lawyer for Union bank had told the panel that the bank placed Mrs. Jonathan’s account under a ‘precautionary restriction’ following a directive by the EFCC.

He said: “We received a communication from EFCC to put a precautionary restriction on the account. The letter was dated March 21, 2016, so we had to act based on that."However the committee said the bank could only freeze the account 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.

“I want to order all other banks that all the accounts that have no specific pending order from the courts, please release them,’’ the committee chairman said.

Afam Osigwe the counsel to EcoBank, , said Mrs Jonathan’s account could not have been on restriction because there was no court order to that effect. He later said that the bank would cross-check its records and get back to the committee.

The former first lady's lawyers said three of her accounts were frozen in Diamond bank, but Unoma Ndulue, who represented the bank, said two out of the three accounts were fully operative, while one was closed.