There are indications that Patience Jonathan, Nigeria’s former first lady might forfeit Aridolf Resort Wellness and Spa, a hotel she reportedly owns and opened few weeks to the exit of her husband in 2015.
Aridolf Resort Wellness and Spa is said to be worth NGN10 billion in value. Patience Jonathan is being investigated by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC for charges likely to be related allegations of money laundering.
On the hotel’s website, the rumour that Patience Jonathan owns the hotel is further accentuated with a news post on the purchase of PDP presidential ticket nomination form by her husband in 2014.
The revelation of her ownership of Aridolf Resort Wellness and Spa was brought up by her claim to USD15 million found in several accounts allegedly opened by Owei Dudafa, a former aide of President Jonathan.
It would be recalled that Dudafa was accused by the EFCC forusing 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 to launder money belonging to the federal government.
Financial Times did a report during the opening of the hotel saying:
“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.”
Going forward, Patience Jonathan would have to prove how she came about such amount of money which might lead to the investigation of Aridolf Resort Wellness and Spa.
