The Federal Government of Nigeria has requested a US federal court to subpoena bank accounts belonging to 10 former political office holders, including former President, Goodluck Jonathan over the judgement in the Process & Industrial Developments Ltd gas deal.
However, Jonathan denied having any bank account in the US.
According to Bloomberg, the request covers Jonathan and his wife, Patience; former ministers of petroleum, Diezani Alison-Madueke and Rilwanu Lukman.
The banks listed include; Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase and New York branches of Deutsche Bank AG and United Bank for Africa Plc.
The suit is part of EFCC’s investigation into the 2010 gas pipeline contract which breach led to an arbitral award of $9.6 billion against Nigeria by a UK court in 2019.
Bloomberg quotes Attorney General Abubakar Malami as saying in the court filings submitted on March 24 that: “There is good reason to believe that ministers at the highest level were involved in a corrupt scheme to steal money from Nigeria.”
Meanwhile, Jonathan has denied having any bank account abroad.
In a statement by his spokesman, Ikechukwu Eze, on Tuesday, Jonathan said: “We aver that the Federal Government of Nigeria did not contact Dr. Jonathan or his wife before issuing these subpoenas.
“If they had, we would have advised them of the fact that you cannot subpoena what does not exist.
“We also remind the public that on March 5, 2014, during the swearing in of new ministers, then President Jonathan said ‘I am loyal to Nigeria’s economy. I don’t have accounts or property abroad.’
“We are confident in stating that between that time and now, nothing has changed with regards to Dr. Goodluck Jonathan. He has no accounts in the United States of America, and encourages US authorities to cooperate fully with the Federal Government of Nigeria’s subpoena.
“We would also like to state that during his tenure as President of Nigeria, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan extended every courtesy to former Presidents and Heads of state, because he believed and still believes that promoting, projecting and protecting Nigeria’s sovereignty and image is the paramount duty of her government, because it is not possible to belittle Nigerians without belittling Nigeria.
“Finally, we state that the signing of the P&ID contracts preceded the Jonathan administration, and that government gave appropriate counsel to the incoming government in the handover notes of 2015, which advice, if carried out, would have prevented the current unfortunate circumstances.”
