Patience is seeking the order of the
court to stop the permanent forfeiture of her $5.9m and
N2,421,953,522.78 to the Federal Government.
The suit, which was assigned to Justices
John Ikyeh, Abimbola Obaseki-Adejumo and Abraham Georgewill, was
stalled following the withdrawal of one of the members of the panel.
Justice Ikyeh, who presided over the
appeal, noted that three judges were required to form a quorum before an
appeal could be heard and further adjourned till Monday.
“One of us is going to recuse himself
from this case for personal reasons, so we are not complete. Two of us
cannot make a quorum,” Justice Ikyeh said.
Patience’s appeal started when the
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission got an interim order from
Justice Mojisola Olatoregun of the Federal High Court to freeze her
account.
The EFFC while obtaining the freezing
order told the judge that the $5.9m found in Patience’s account was
suspected to be proceeds of crime.
Apart from the Skye Bank account with
$5.9m, the EFCC also obtained a freezing order in respect of an Ecobank
account with a balance of N2.4bn which was opened in the name of one La
Wari Furniture and Bath Limited.
Patience lawyer, Mr. Ifedayo Adedipe
(SAN), had on June 15, filed an application praying that further
proceedings in the case should be suspended until the outcome of the
appeal stating that his client had gone on appeal to challenge the
freezing order.
Justice Olatoregun on May 22, granted the application of Adedipe for a stay.
No comments: