Whistle-Blower Policy Yields Recovery of $151m, N8b Looted Funds -FG
Banking & Finance, Business News, Featured, Latest Headlines Sunday, February 12th, 2017
By Niyi Balogun
LAGOS, NIGERIA (AFRICAN EXAMINER) – The recent Federal Government’s Whistle-blower policy has started yielding fruit, as sum of US$151 million and 8 billion Naira looted funds have been recovered.
Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, who said this in a statement issued in Lagos Sunday, however clarify that the bogus figures did not include the $9.2 million in cash allegedly owned by a former Group Managing Director of the NNPC (which was also a dividend of the whistle-blower policy).
The sum in focus according to the Minister, were recovered from just three sources through whistle-blowers who gave actionable information to the office of the Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation.
The biggest amount of $136,676,600.51 was recovered from an account in a commercial bank, where the money was kept under an apparently fake account name, followed by 7 billion Naira and $15 million from another person and 1 billion Naira from yet another.
”When we told Nigerians that there was a primitive and mindless looting of the national treasury under the last Administration, some people called us liars. Well, the whistle-blower policy is barely two months old and Nigerians have started feeling its impact, seeing how a few people squirrelled away public funds. It is doubtful if any economy in the world will not feel the impact of such mind-boggling looting of the treasury as was experienced in Nigeria.
”Yet whatever has been recovered so far, including the $9.2 million by the EFCC, is just a tip of the iceberg,” Alhaji Mohammed stressed.
The Minister appealed to Nigerians with useful information on looted funds to continue to provide the authorities with such information, saying confidentiality will be maintained with regards to the source of the information.
The Minister also reminded Nigerians of the financial reward aspect of the policy, saying ”If there is a voluntary return of stolen or concealed public funds or assets on the account of the information provided, the whistle blower may be entitled to anywhere between 2.5 per cent (Minimum) and 5.0 per cent (Maximum) of the total amount recovered”.
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I would like to find out in what way the recovered loot will benefit Nigerians. There has been a number of recovered looted funds but Nigerians continue to suffer. Can the minister say specifically what the funds would be used for. Otherwise it would appear the loot is just changing hands.