Sagay reveals senators FBI will start hunting

Chairman of of the Presidential Advisory Committee against Corruption, Prof. Itsey Sagay, disclosed this on Wednesday that the FBI will now help in hunting members of Nigeria’s Senate whose relatives are abroad.

Sagay said a number of former governors, including some who are now senators, transferred public funds abroad to purchase properties in the names of their relatives living there.

“The idea is that our government should on appropriate tip off contact the FBI in the USA to investigate such relations regarding their source of funds for the properties in their names.

“Since making a false statement to the FBI is a felony with the definite consequence of imprisonment, these siblings or relations of the real Nigerian owners will confess to being mere fronts and recovery of such assets can proceed from there.

“I believe this is a worthwhile process deserving consideration by our Anti-corruption Agencies and the Federal Ministry of Justice, particularly under the Mutual Legal Assistance Agreement we already have with many developed countries.”

According Sagay, the whistleblowing policy has recorded 791 cases and recovery of N594 billion in three years.

“As at November 2019, less than three years after the introduction of the Policy, the Federal Government had recovered N594.09 billion from the implementation of the policy”, Sagay said.

He noted that the policy has been successful in terms of assets recovered through information provided by whistleblowers and revelation of variety of scams fraudulent Nigerians employ in swindling the government.

But Sagay and his boss President Muhammadu Buhari  may be spoiling for war with this policy.

Nigerian senators like to swing their clout when executive policies touch the lawmakers’ sore points, especially now that Nigerian governors have informally considered it necessary to retire into the upper chamber after two terms.