BEVERLY HILLS, November 06, (THEWILL) – The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has frozen a bank account belonging to Mrs. Bola Shagaya, founder and Chief Executive Officer of Bolmus Group International – a diversified Nigerian conglomerate with interests in oil, real estate, banking, communications and photography – due to her links to Dame Patience Jonathan, the wife of former President Goodluck Jonathan.
Shagaya, a businesswoman which Forbes Magazine described as one of the wealthiest in Africa, had become a subject of investigation leading to the freezing of her account with Unity Bank with a balance of N500m.
“When we were investigating Patience and looking into her accounts, we discovered that Bola Shagaya had been making huge and regular payments into her (Patience’s) bank account,” an EFCC source revealed.
“We then discovered that the monies were kickbacks. The Ministry of Trade and Investment gave suspicious commission to Shagaya’s company on every crude oil sent abroad. The commission was put in an account for Bola Shagaya. The money will then go to Patience’s account. So we started investigating her.
“We were able to trace the N500m to her account at Unity Bank. So, we placed a ‘No Debit Order’ on the account.
“When she heard about the restriction, she ran down to the bank to stop the order from being carried out. We then called the bank to let them know that doing such would amount to a criminal conspiracy. At that point, she had no choice.”
Meanwhile, reports indicate that Patience attempted to withdraw $5m from frozen account during the week.
“We received an alert from Skye Bank during the week that Patience attempted to withdraw $5m from her personal account titled Patience Ibifaka Jonathan which is domiciled at the bank,” the source said.
“We immediately told the bank not to allow any withdrawal because a ‘No Debit Order’ had been placed on the account.”
Story by Oputah David
