Nigeria’s whistle-blowing policy working, Adeosun tells World Bank

• Over N75bn recovered so far

By Odunewu Segun

With over N75 billion recovered through whistle-blowing sources, Nigeria’s Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun has told the World Bank and parliamentarians from other parts of the world that the country’s latest effort at recovering looted funds through the whistle-blowing policy has been quite successful.

Speaking at the global parliamentary conference hosted on the sidelines of the World Bank and IMF spring meetings in Washington DC, the minister highlighted Nigeria’s economic reform agenda and the need for strong executive and legislative collaboration.

“We are going after those who have stolen our money. We have put in place a very successful whistle blower programme that is delivering results, and allows those who report illicit activity to receive up to 5 percent any funds that we recover,” Adeosun said.

The whistle-blowing policy, National Daily gathered, has aided the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in making recoveries across the country. The latest being the recovery of foreign currencies and Naira notes to the tune of $43.4 million, £27,800 and N23.2 million at a four-bedroom apartment in Ikoyi, Lagos. The total amount of money recovered at the current Central Bank exchange rate is over N13 billion.

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The Federal Government has recovered another $151 million and N8 billion looted funds from three sources through whistleblowers. First was the $9.2 million cash from a former Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Andrew Yakubu, and another $136.7 million in a commercial bank, kept under an apparently fake account name. Others included N7bn and $15 million from another person and N1bn from yet another.

Going by the official Bureau De Change exchange rates of N362 to a dollar, the total haul so far is around N75, 662,000,000.

Meanwhile, Nigeria’s minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed has 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.