A former first lady, Patience Jonathan, was on Monday sighted at the Maitama branch of Skye Bank in Abuja.
Mrs. Jonathan’s visit to the bank may not be unconnected with a court decision last week to unfreeze her account at the bank.
The Federal High Court in Lagos on Thursday directed that the freeze order on the account be cancelled. The account is believed to contain about $5.8 million (about N1.8 billion).
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, had in November 2016 filed an application before the court, seeking an order freezing the account.
Unconfirmed reports said she wanted to withdraw as much as $1million, but was given $100,000 by the bank.
She was said to have returned at 10am and had a closed-door meeting with an executive director of the bank.
She finally left the bank at 4:05pm but declined to speak to reporters who sought to know why she was there.
One of her aides, who declined to disclose his name, told journalists that “everything was okay”.
Olatoregun’s order was sequel to an application argued by Adedayo Adedipe, counsel to the former first lady.
Adedipe had urged the court to unfreeze the account on the grounds that Jonathan was not a party in the suit leading to the order made by the court.
Adedipe while citing judicial authorities contended that the order was an abuse of court process as the court had no jurisdiction to make an order against a party that is not a party in a suit filed before the court.
Sometime last year, based on an application filed before the court by the EFCC, the court had ordered that the account be frozen on the grounds that it contained suspected proceeds of crime.
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