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Release my $15m, Mrs. Jonathan Tells EFCC
Dame Patience Jonathan, the wife of former President Goodluck Jonathan, said she was using her $15m, which was frozen in four companies’ accounts, to settle medical bills while she was out of the country.
The Punch reported that she, therefore, urged the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and Skye Bank to lift the restriction on the accounts.
Patience said this in a letter with reference number GA/Abibo/00226/2016, written by her lawyers, Granville Abibo (SAN) and Co, which was addressed to the Acting Chairman of the EFCC, Mr. Ibrahim Magu.
Punch had reported that the four accounts belonged to the following companies: Pluto Property and Investment Company Limited, Seagate Property Development and Investment Company Limited, Trans Ocean Property and Investment Company Limited and Globus Integrated Service Limited.
A houseboy, a driver and other domestic workers of a former Special Adviser on Domestic Affairs to Jonathan, Waripamowei Dudafa, were named as directors, but Patience’s $15m was lodged in the accounts and she was given a platinum card and exclusive access to the accounts.
The letter read in part, “It is noteworthy to emphasise that the said accounts, which were in US dollar denomination, were card-based accounts and our client is the sole signatory to these accounts.
“However, our client has been operating the said accounts using the cards for her medical bill payments and purchases for her private purposes without any let or hindrance.
“Our client was therefore surprised when the said cards stop functioning on July 7, 2016, or thereabout. Our client immediately, thereupon, contacted Skye Bank Plc through our solicitors.
‘‘It was only then that the bank officials informed our client that the said accounts were placed on a ‘No Debit Order’ following investigations and instruction from your commission and this is without notice to our client by either the bank or the commission.
“It is in the light of the foregoing that we urge you to use your good offices to vacate the ‘No Debit/Freezing Order’ placed on the said accounts.”
Patience, who described herself as a law-abiding citizen, said despite all the explanations she offered to the Lagos Zonal Office of the EFCC, the detectives in charge refused to heed her request.
She, therefore, urged Magu to intervene immediately.
She added, “Despite the foregoing, our client, who is a law-abiding citizen, has watched with surprise how efforts are being made surreptitiously to indirectly harass or harangue her and short-change her of her personal funds in breach of her fundamental human rights.
“We urge you sir, to kindly intervene to stop the untoward and wrongful actions of your officials to embarrass, inconvenience and short-change our client.”
However, a detective in the EFCC said, “We got a relevant court order to freeze those accounts and we have evidence which we will present in court on Friday.
“We did not know that the accounts belonged to Patience Jonathan at the time we froze them. The accounts do not bear her name neither do they carry her BVN (Bank Verification Number). So, how can she accuse us of harassment?
“She has a separate account in Skye Bank with the title ‘Patience Jonathan’, which has a balance of $5m. If she claims she needs money for medical treatment, then the $5m should be alright.”
In a thanksgiving service held at the State House chapel in Abuja on February 18, 2013, Patience had said she underwent seven surgical operations within one month in Germany, adding that the doctors had given up hope on her survival.
She had stated, “I remember when Chief Obasanjo was the President of the country, I was close to his late wife, Stella. We worshiped together in this chapel. It was a painful moment for me that time when she (Stella) died and her corpse was brought here.
“That was how my corpse would have been brought here.
‘‘It was not an easy experience for me. I actually died, I passed out for more than a week. My intestine and tummy were opened.
“I am not Lazarus but my experience was similar to his. My doctors said all hope was lost.’’
FG not persecuting Jonathan, Patience –Mohammed
Meanwhile, the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has said the Federal Government, under President Muhammadu Buhari, is not persecuting Jonathan and his wife, Patience.
Speaking in an interview with journalists in Oro, Kwara State, on Tuesday, Mohammed said it would be wrong to submit that the Federal Government was probing Jonathan or Patience.
He said, “If you look at the history of Mrs. Patience Jonathan’s issue, I think she was the one that came out to claim that the money found in the accounts of one of the aides to the former President, her husband, belonged to her.
“It was not the EFCC that claimed so. She claimed that the money that the guy was being prosecuted for belonged to her. It was only then they later found an extra $5m in another account.
“It is not as if anybody has gone out to probe Mrs. Jonathan directly or indirectly. Rather Mrs. Jonathan was the one that said ‘that money for which you are accusing Mr. X actually belongs to me. So, you cannot start talking of prosecution or persecution.”
The minister said the Federal Government was concerned about the current national economic recession and had initiated measures to address it.
He stated that the current campaign of the Federal Government, ‘‘Change begins with me,’’ was not only for the people but also for the leaders.
Mohammed also said it was incorrect to accuse Buhari’s government of being partisan, selective and vindictive in its anti-corruption war.
He said Buhari would also not spare any APC member accused or guilty of corruption.
He said, “People have always said that no APC politician had been investigated. The question is ‘those who are those being prosecuted today, for what reasons are they being prosecuted?
“It is wrong to say that the government is only investigating and prosecuting PDP members. We have not even started investigating the oil and gas industry. It is not about going out to investigate PDP. No!
‘‘We lost about 15,000 people. Nobody can, in honesty, accuse the FG of being one sided.’’
Patience must explain her source of wealth, says CACOL
Also, a civil society organisation, Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders, has said Patience must explain how she came about the funds with which she reportedly built a N10bn hotel in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State.
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.
But CACOL, which recalled in a statement on Tuesday that Patience was only a Permanent Secretary in Bayelsa State at a time, said the ex-President’s wife must be made to explain the source of her wealth.
The statement by the group’s acting Media Officer, Abiodun Rabiu, quoted the Executive Chairman of CACOL, Debo Adeniran, as saying the EFCC needed no further petition to invite Patience for questioning.
CACOL asked, “How did she (Patience) get the money and even the ones stacked in her accounts? That is what we, Nigerians, want to know. As far as we can understand, she was just a civil servant. So, as a civil servant, how did she manage to acquire such a luxurious property that is worth that amount, because she would have earned less than 10 per cent of the amount even if she had been a Director or Permanent Secretary in the Bayelsa State Civil Service all of the entire years she has spent on earth?”
Union Bank of Nigeria has secured certification under the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) version 4.0.1, a global standard for protecting payment card data.
The certification took effect on August 11, 2026, confirming that the bank’s systems for storing, processing and transmitting customers’ credit and debit card information meet stringent international security requirements.
PCI DSS certification is designed to reduce the risk of payment card data breaches and financial fraud while strengthening customer confidence in electronic payment systems.
The assessment covered key areas of Union Bank’s operations, including network infrastructure, card issuance, ATM and POS transactions, payment processing, reconciliation, settlement, chargebacks, dispute resolution and retail banking.
Union Bank was assessed and certified under the Service Provider category.
The certification process lasted a full year and involved quarterly assessments, with support from departmental, business and functional heads across the bank. Digital security firm Digital Encode supported the process, while the final independent audit was conducted by CyberCube, an accredited Qualified Security Assessor.
Yetunde B. Oni, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Union Bank, said the certification demonstrates the bank’s commitment to protecting customer information.
“The security of our customers’ information is central to everything we do at Union Bank. This certification reaffirms that our payment systems and processes meet a rigorous global standard, and it reflects the discipline of colleagues across the Bank who work every day to keep customer data safe.”
The renewal also ensures that Union Bank maintains continuous PCI DSS certification, in line with the Central Bank of Nigeria’s requirement for banks to sustain compliance without interruption.
New data from CFA Society Nigeria is reshaping how the country’s financial sector thinks about talent development, with Access emerging as the single largest source of CFA candidates in Nigeria, distinction industry watchers say signals a deeper shift in how leading institutions are building investment expertise from within.
In its Where Nigeria’s Finance Professionals Work series, published in a national daily, CFA Society Nigeria placed Access first among employers of CFA candidates nationwide, with 82 candidates enrolled in the programme, more than double the 38 recorded at the next-placed institution and well ahead of every other bank or financial services firm on the list.
Access also ranked second among employers of CFA charterholders, with 11 professionals who have completed all three levels of the Programme and met its experience and ethics requirements.
For an industry that has long measured itself by balance sheet size and branch count, the rankings point to a different kind of competition: one over who is building the deepest bench of certified, globally credentialed talent.
CFA Society Nigeria compiled the data from its Salesforce Membership Database as at June 2026, and described the exercise as a way of recognising employers whose people “bring rigour, integrity and global best practices into the workplace every day.”
Analysts following the sector say the outcome is notable less for the ranking itself than for what it suggests about talent strategy across Africa’s financial services industry. A single institution developing more aspiring charterholders than the rest of the market combined raises the floor for professional standards nationally, not just within one balance sheet.
Every candidate who advances through the CFA Programme adds to a shared pool of ethics-trained, analytically rigorous professionals that Nigeria’s capital markets, pension funds and asset managers all eventually draw from.
Access Holdings Group Chief Executive Officer Innocent C. Ike, commenting on the rankings, framed the achievement in terms of institution-building rather than recruitment: “Every candidate on that list represents our commitment to building institutions and professionals that endure.”
The remark echoes a broader thesis increasingly voiced by market observers, that talent depth, not scale alone, is what will determine which African financial institutions earn lasting global credibility.
That distinction sits at the centre of Access’s stated ambition to become the World’s Most Respected African Financial Services Group. If the CFA numbers are any indication, the Group’s route to that goal runs less through square metres of branch network and more through the calibre of the people sitting inside it, a bet that Nigeria’s finance professionals, and the institutions that will one day hire them, are already placing alongside Access.
Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has announced plans to introduce Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) baggage tracking technology across domestic and international airport terminals to tackle the growing problem of delayed, misrouted and missing luggages
Michael Achimugu, director, Public Affairs and Consumer Protection, NCAA, disclosed this at a stakeholder engagement forum in Lagos.
Achimugu said the RFID-enabled system would replace the traditional barcode-based baggage tracking framework and provide airlines and passengers with real-time visibility of checked luggage from check-in to final collection.
According to him, the technology would improve baggage traceability, reduce mishandling and strengthen accountability across the baggage-handling chain.
Unlike conventional barcode systems, RFID technology allows baggage to be automatically scanned at multiple points without requiring direct line of sight, enabling real-time tracking of luggage throughout its journey.
Achimugu said issues involving short-landed, missing, lost or damaged baggage had remained among the major complaints from air travellers, alongside flight delays.
He said the introduction of RFID technology was therefore aimed at improving baggage-handling standards and restoring passenger confidence in the aviation sector.
The NCAA said the initiative also aligns with IATA Resolution 753, which requires airlines to track baggage at key points during the passenger journey.
The authority expects the technology to provide more accurate information on the location of luggage, facilitate quicker resolution of baggage-related complaints and improve the overall passenger experience.
The NCAA said the initiative would also strengthen accountability among airlines and other stakeholders involved in baggage handling at Nigerian airports.
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