Aridolf Resort Wellness and Spa, Yenagoa, Bayelsa State
Dame Patience Jonathan, the wife of former President Goodluck
Jonathan, may be forced to forfeit to the Federal Government, a N10bn
hotel allegedly belonging to her if she fails to explain how she came
about some funds allegedly traced to her accounts.
It has been alleged that if she is taken to court and she cannot
prove how she made her wealth, she will be forced to forfeit the hotel.
“This is one of the questions she may have to answer as the
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission continues investigation into
the $20m found in five accounts she has laid claim to,” a source told our correspondent on Monday.
The hotel, which is known as Aridolf Resort Wellness and Spa,
Yenagoa, was inaugurated by Patience in April 2015, barely a month
before the end of her husband’s tenure, Punch reports.
The hotel it is reported has imported state-of-the-art furniture,
and can compete with other luxury hotels in developed countries.
The report dated April 21, 2015, states in part, “The Aridolf
Hotel in Yenagoa is an unlikely monument to kitsch on a reclaimed swamp
in Nigeria’s oil-producing Niger Delta. In the lobby, Louis XIV
furniture is accompanied by bowls of plastic fruit, faux Dutch
landscapes and a grotesquely gaudy chandelier. The hotel is redolent of
the riches on display in a region that for half a century has generated
the bulk of Nigeria’s wealth.
“The Aridolf, which is owned by Patience Jonathan, wife of the
former President, is symptomatic of how superficial progress has been in
addressing the festering sense of marginalisation in the region, which
remains desperately impoverished despite benefiting from a tide of
petrodollars in recent years.” UK business newspaper, The Financial Times reports.
While speaking on the matter, the Chairman, Presidential Advisory
Committee Against Corruption, Prof. Itse Sagay, had said that the EFCC
had the right to investigate anybody who was living above his or her
means.
Sagay, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, wondered how Patience, who was
a civil servant and never held any government position, could have
billions in her bank accounts.
He said, “The EFCC and ICPC Acts have provisions under which
they can ask the court to freeze the account of a person if a person’s
capacity to earn is below the amount of money that the person appears to
have.
“If you are living a lavish lifestyle and it appears you don’t
have the means to have acquired the property and the wealth you have,
the EFCC is free to probe you.”
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