EXCLUSIVE: Bayelsa Court Ignores Domestic Workers’ Allegations Of Torture, Accepts Confessions In Ex-First Lady Patience Jonathan’s Jewellery Theft Case

In July 2025, SaharaReporters reported that the case had finally resumed at the Bayelsa State High Court.

The Bayelsa State High Court has admitted the 'confessions' of domestic workers accused of stealing jewellery belonging to former first lady, Patience Jonathan.

In July 2025, SaharaReporters reported that the case had finally resumed at the Bayelsa State High Court.

SaharaReporters also reported that the court resumed cross-examination of four defendants, listed as Golden Vivian, Vincent Olabiyi, Tamunosiki Achese, and Emmanuel Aginwa, who all narrated chilling accounts of how they were brutalised by officers attached to the notorious Operation Puff Adder unit of the Nigeria Police Force.

In a new development, prison and court sources familiar with the matter, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the case’s sensitivity and the involvement of Patience Jonathan, said the court admitted the confessional evidence presented against the accused.

Many sources who spoke to SaharaReporters noted, however, that the court admitted the evidence despite the accused persons narrating how they were tortured and made to confess under duress.

"The court refused to listen to the accused persons who kept noting that they were wrongly accused and the confessional statement accepted by the judge was gotten through torture and duress," a source told SaharaReporters.

It was further gathered that the judge stated that the accused persons must have been insincere and lying in their claims.

"The situation is unfortunate; the accused persons, that is the domestic workers were said to have lied, and if the court goes on to utilise the controversial confession against them, it would be unfair," one of the sources said.

The case was afterwards adjourned to January 2026 for further hearing.

Earlier in July 2025, SaharaReporters, quoting a source familiar with the case, reported that "the prosecutor cross-examined four persons. They all gave consistent testimony about their torture at the hands of Puff Adder operatives."

“The defendants used the opportunity to narrate how they were suspended, beaten, and forced to sign confessions under duress," the source further told SaharaReporters.

Earlier in the same July this year, SaharaReporters published a detailed report exposing how the trial, which began in 2019, had stalled indefinitely.

The report revealed how court sessions were skipped without explanation and how the defendants, many of whom were allegedly tortured into confessions, had languished in detention at the Okaka Correctional Centre in Yenagoa for over five years without bail.

The 15 accused persons are Williams Alami, Vincent Olabiyi, Ebuka Cosmos, John Dashe, Tamunokuro Abaku, Sahabi Liman, Emmanuel Aginwa, Erema Deborah, Precious Kingsley, Tamunosiki Achese, Salomi Wareboka, Sunday Reginald, Boma Oba, Vivian Golden, and Emeka Benson.

They were arrested and charged with stealing jewellery reportedly worth hundreds of millions of naira from Mrs. Jonathan’s residence.

In court, the defendants have consistently detailed how they were abducted, tortured, and denied access to lawyers.

In one session, Golden Vivian testified that she was suspended and whipped after she refused to confess to the theft. Others corroborated her account, naming one “O.C. Chris” and a Chief Security Officer, Colin Otutu, as key figures in the alleged police brutality.

Despite multiple accusations of police abuse and credible evidence of torture, no officer has been charged or investigated.

Neither has Mrs. Jonathan, whose legal team, led by Ige Asemudara and Samuel Chinedu Maduba, has been accused of deliberately stalling the trial through judicial tactics and phantom motions.

SaharaReporters reported in September 2025 that one of the domestic staff members died after a lengthy struggle with illness.

SaharaReporters gathered that the deceased, identified as Sahabi Liman, had been on bail for three years after his health deteriorated while in detention at the Okaka Correctional Centre, Yenagoa.

His son, who spoke with SaharaReporters, narrated how his father’s condition worsened before he finally succumbed at a hospital in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.