The “young man” who blew the whistle on the money recovered from an
apartment in Ikoyi, Lagos, is now a millionaire as he has been
officially compensated.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) said the man was rewarded with percentage of the recovered.
The Acting Chairman of the commission, Mr Ibrahim Magu, stated this in
Vienna, Austria, on Thursday, spokesman of the EFCC, Mr Wilson Uwujaren,
said in a statement.
Uwujaren said Magu spoke at the ongoing 7th Session of the Conference of
States Parties to the United Nations Convention Against Corruption.
On April 7, EFCC operatives broke into a four-bedroom apartment on
Osborne Towers, Ikoyi, and pulled out $43 million, £27,800 and N23
million stashed in a wardrobe.
The commission said the discovery followed an operation triggered by a whistle blower’s alert received by its Lagos office.
Uwujaren quoted Magu as saying that the whistle blower was already a
millionaire by virtue of the percentage he was officially entitled to.
“We are currently working on the young man because this is just a man who has not seen one million Naira of his own before.
“So, he is under counseling on how to make good use of the money and also the security implication.
“We don’t want anything bad to happen to him after taking delivery of his entitlement. He is a national pride”, he said.
The EFCC boss called on Nigerians who want a positive change in the
country to take advantage of the whistle blowing policy announced by the
government early this year.
He noted that aside from contributing to the eradication of corruption,
potential whistle blowers also stood to “benefit from the illicit
acquisition by the looters”.
“So, we encourage more whistle blowers to come forward with genuine
information that will lead to recoveries from looters of public
treasuries.
“That is part of the ways we can put an end to the looting madness in the public sector.
“When they know that they have no place to keep the loot, as all eyes
are on them, they will find looting of public treasuries unattractive, ”
Magu said.
On June 7, a Federal High Court sitting in Lagos ordered the final forfeiture of the money to the Federal Government. (NAN)