THE Federal Government’s whistleblower policy has started yielding fruit as it has led to the recovery of $151million and another N8billion in looted funds.
The looted funds, which 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 whistleblower policy), were recovered from just three sources through whistleblowers who gave actionable information to the office of the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation.
Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, who disclosed this in a statement issued in Lagos on Sunday, said that 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.
It was followed by N7billion and $15million from another person and N1billion from yet another, according to the minister.
He said that whatever has been recovered so far, including the $9.2million by the EFCC, was just a tip of the iceberg.
Alhaji Mohammed 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 whistleblower may be entitled to anywhere between 2.5 per cent (minimum) and five per cent (maximum) of the total amount recovered.
He 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 whistleblower policy is barely two months old and Nigerians have started feeling its impact, seeing how a few people squirreled away public funds.
“It is doubtful if any economy in the world will not feel the impact of such mindboggling looting of the treasury as was experienced in Nigeria.”