Our whistle blower policy has helped recover US$151m, N8bn looted funds –Lai

The Whistle-Blower policy recently set up by the President Muhammadu Buhari administration appears to be yielding fruits.

The administration’s claims that it has recovered $151million and N8billion looted funds, from former public office holders, and their cronies.

Announcing this on Sunday in a statement by, Segun Adeyemi, his Special Assistant, the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said the recovered looted funds did not include the recent $9.2million allegedly recovered in cash from a former Group Managing Director of the NNPC (which was also a dividend of the whistle-blower policy).

According the minister, the funds were recovered from three sources through whistle-blowers, who gave actionable information to the office of the Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation.

He said, 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 N7billion and $15million from another person and N1billion from yet another.”

Alhaji Lai Mohammed who was happy that the policy is now yielding fruit said, “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.

Read also: EFCC confiscates ex-FCT Minister’s, son’s 10 choice properties

”Yet whatever has been recovered so far, including the $9.2 million by the EFCC, is just a tip of the iceberg,”

He then urged Nigerians with useful information on looted funds to continue to provide the authorities with such information, promising that confidentiality will be maintained with regards to the source of the information.

The minister while reminding Nigerians of the financial reward aspect of the policy explained, ”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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