FG recovers another $151m, N8b looted funds

The Federal Government said it recovered another $151million 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 said 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 funds.

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.

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.