Whistle-Blower: FG recovers another $151m, N8b looted funds

The Federal Government said it recovered another 151
million dollars and N8 billion looted funds from three
sources through whistke-blowers.
The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai
Mohammed disclosed this in a statement issued on
Sunday in Lagos.
Mohammed sad actionable information given by
whistle-blowers to the office of the Minister of Justice
and Attorney-General of the Federation led to the
recovery of the looted fund.
He said the looted funds do not include the 9.2 million
dollars in cash allegedly owned
by a former Group Managing Director of the NNPC, also
a dividend of the whistle-blower policy.
“The biggest amount of 136.7 million dollars was
recovered from an account in
a commercial bank, where the money was kept under
an apparently fake
account name.
“This was followed by N7 billion and 15 million dollars
from another person and N1 billion from yet another,”
he said.
The minister reiterated the position of government that
there was a primitive and mindless looting of the
national treasury under the last administration.
He said the whistle-blower policy has started yielding
fruit, few months after its adoption by the government.
“The whistle-blower policy is barely two months old and
Nigerians have started feeling its impact, 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 dollars by the EFCC, is just a tip of the
iceberg,” he said.
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.
He also reminded Nigerians of the financial reward
aspect of the policy.
”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,” he
said. (NAN)