The Federal Government said it recovered another 151 million dollars and
N8 billion looted funds from three sources through whistle-blowers.
The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed disclosed
this in a statement issued on Sunday in Lagos.
Mohammed sad actionable information given by whistle-blowers to the office
of the Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation led to
the recovery of the looted fund.
He said the looted funds do not include the 9.2 million dollars in cash
allegedly owned by a former Group Managing Director of the NNPC, also a
dividend of the whistle-blower policy.
“The biggest amount of 136.7 million dollars was recovered from an account
in a commercial bank, where the money was kept under an apparently fake
account name.
“This was followed by N7 billion and 15 million dollars from another
person and N1 billion from yet another,” he said.
The minister reiterated the position of government that there was a
primitive and mindless looting of the national treasury under the last
administration.
He said the whistle-blower policy has started yielding fruit, few months
after its adoption by the government.
“The whistle-blower policy is barely two months old and Nigerians have
started feeling its impact, 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.
”Yet whatever has been recovered so far, including the 9.2 million dollars
by the EFCC, is just a tip of the iceberg,” he said.
The minister 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. (NAN)