In a suit No: FHC/ABJ/CS/1158/2017 dated November 22, by the plaintiff, through their lawyers, Hammart & Co, at the Federal High Court, Abuja Division, they are seeking the court’s “declaration that the Federal Government represented by the Attorney General of the Federation and Federal Ministry of Finance who are defendants in this suit and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Bala Usman Maina, Stephen Sunday and Mr Sherriff are bound to comply with the whistle-blowers executive policy or whistle-blowers executive order to pay 2.5 per cent of whistle-blowing fees or percentage as issued by the Federal Government of Nigeria.
The plaintiff is also seeking a “declaration that the plaintiff, the fourth, fifth and sixth defendants actively participated and are instrumental to the whistle-blowing or disclosure of information to the first defendant staff or officers which resulted to the first defendant’s recovery of the sums of $43.4 million. N23.3 million and 27,800 Euros at Flat 7 Osborne Towers, Ikoyi, Lagos State.
The plaintiff is also seeking a mandatory injunction restraining the second defendant by themselves, their agents, staff or officers from excluding or denying the plaintiff from payment of the 2.5-five per cent of the whistle-blowing fees or percentage of the amount of the money recovered as a result of the whistle-blowing or information disclosed by the plaintiff to the first defendant.
The original whistle-blowers had earlier written the Minister of Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun, to stop the proposed payment to allow reasons prevail on the petition earlier written to the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) on their alleged shortchange.
In a letter dated November 15, and received by the office of the Finance Minister same day, the petitioners, through their lawyers, Hammart and Co (Tafida Chambers), drew the attention of the Finance Minister to an earlier petition written to the AGF since September, for which no action was taken and that the silence of these top government officials run counter to the Buhari administration’s stance on corruption in all its ramifications.
The whistle-blowers requested the Finance Minister to put on hold the earlier plan to pay the wrong whistle-blowers until their complaints had been thoroughly investigated and justice done.
“It is therefore, the brief of our clients that we request you to hold on payment of the whistle-blowers’ fee/entitlement until our clients’ complaints are sorted out. That considering the vital role our client played in exposing the whereabouts of the recovered money, our client cannot be sidelined or denied his entitlement, doing so will amount to injustice to our client.”
and then