By Omoniyi Salaudeen

The raging controversy over the payment of five percent compensation to whistle blowers, who provided information for the recovery of $43.4 million, N23.3 million and 27,800 Euros stashed in an apartment at the Osborne Towers in Ikoyi, Lagos, on April 22, 2017 still remains unresolved. As a result of the seeming innocuous drama that characterized the shoddy handling of the matter by the concerned authorities, no fewer than nine people are now said to be laying claim to N850 million due to be paid as compensation by the Federal Government to those who provided the tip-off that led to the recovery.

The matter became a source of public concern when a man, who claimed to be the principal whistle blower, Stephen Sunday, accused the EFCC of adding six other names to the original three who provided the tip-off that led to the recovery.  Sunday, in his account, claimed that he had led two of his friends, Abdulmumin Musa and Bala Usman to the discovery only to be told by the EFCC that the number of informants had increased to nine. Consequently, his lawyer, Yakubu Galadima,  has threatened to take the matter to court, if the appropriate authorities fail to pay his client his due reward by the end of this month.  He also frowned at the way and manner the operatives traumatized Sunday by putting him to psychosis test and administering drugs on him.   

Whistle blowing is an initiative of President Muhammadu Buhari launched in December 2016 to help his administration in the recovery of looted funds. In the words of Finance Minister, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, “the primary purpose of the policy is to support the fight against financial crimes and corruption, promote accountability and enhance transparency in the management of public finances.” The policy, she said, would be a stop gap initiative, until the National Assembly formally passes a law supporting it.

According to the policy enunciation, it is a programme designed to encourage anyone with information about a violation, misconduct or improper activity that impacts negatively on the Nigerian people and government to report it. To demonstrate the government’s seriousness to the initiative and to also give it the desired credibility, a secure online portal where information can be submitted was created. Through the portal, any anonymous individual can submit documentary evidence and fact-based information such as what occurred, amount involved, who was involved and dates of occurrence of alleged financial malpractice or fraud, collection of bribes, diversion of revenues,  fraudulent and unapproved payments, splitting of contracts, procurement fraud, kickbacks and over-invoicing, among other things.

The policy paper states: “If there is a voluntary return of stolen or concealed public funds or assets on the account of the information provided, the whistleblower may be entitled to anywhere between 2.5% (Minimum) and 5.0% (Maximum) of the total amount recovered. This is on the condition that the government does not already have and could not otherwise obtain the information provided from any other publicly available source. If anyone reports false or misleading information, it will be referred to the enforcement agents for investigation and possible prosecution.

The Whistleblower Unit, a multi-agency team, consisting of personnel from the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), Department of State Services (DSS), the Nigeria Police Force and Presidential Initiative on Continuous Audit (PICA), among others, is resident in the Ministry of Finance Headquarters. The Unit is the first line of response to whistleblower information, where the initial review is undertaken before cases are forwarded to the relevant investigative agencies, according to Adeosun.

In a recent release, the minister further disclosed that as at July, over 5,000 reports had been made through various reporting channels, 365 actionable tips are received out of the 5000 reports, adding that over half of the reports came from public servants. The tips, she disclosed, related to issues of contract inflation, ghost workers, illegal recruitment and misappropriation of funds, illegal sale of government assets, diversion of revenues and violation of Treasury Single Account (TSA) regulations.

“Thirty-nine per cent (144) of the actionable tips relate to misappropriation and diversion of funds/revenue, 16 per cent (60) relate to ghost workers, illegal recruitment and embezzlement of funds meant for personnel emolument.”

“Fifteen per cent (56) relate to violation of TSA regulation, 13 per cent (49) relate to contract inflation/violation of the Procurement Act.

“Others include failure to carry out projects for which funds have been released and nine per cent (34) relate to non-remittance of pension and National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) deductions.’’

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While warning against false information or victimisation, she said: “You will note that as keen as we are for officers to provide information, there are serious consequences for providing false or malicious information, including the possibility of prosecution.”

“We must ensure that people are not victims of personal grudges or private misunderstandings.”

She explained that in the first batch payment, N325 million had been paid as reward for whistleblowers, while payment for the next batch would soon be made. “To date, over 20 of such persons have been paid,” the minister disclosed.

Assessing the success of the initiative, Adeosun added: “The new Whistle blowing Policy introduced by the Federal Ministry of Finance yielded, within its first two months of operation, $160m and N8 billion in recoveries of stolen Government funds.” The recent recovery of $9.7 million and £74,000 Seized from Andrew Yakubu, a former Group Managing Director of the NNPC and the 17 cars retrieved from the former  Comptroller General of Customs, Abdullahi Dikko Inde has been linked to the whistle blowing initiative.

Maxi Okwu, a former factional national chairman of the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA), while reacting to the controversy over the payment of compensation to the whistle blowers in respect of Ikoyi money, agreed that the initiative was well conceived by the government, but wondered why the EFCC created the needless controversy since the operatives knew the identity of the persons who provided the tip-off for the recovery of the money. His words: “The policy of whistleblower was established to drive or energise anti-corruption campaign of this administration and there is a guideline for it. Why will government begin to dodge its responsibility of paying those who gave it a tip that resulted in some arrest and recovery of the money? They should show commitment to the payment of compensation; otherwise, they will discourage other people from coming forward to volunteer information.” 

“The relevant agencies know exactly who gave them information. So, it cannot be a matter of conjecture. They know exactly whose tip-off they worked on. For me, all these conflicting claims are a way of dodging responsibility. My position is that the police or the EFCC know exactly whose tip off they worked on to recover the money. So, it should not be a matter of conjecture. At a point, they said if they give the person the huge sum of money, he would go mad. What kind of porous argument is that? Give him the money and let him go mad. If he goes mad, that is his business. It is none of their business.”

Asked to comment on the implication of the intrigues on the security of the informants, he added: “Many people are gambling with their lives to see whether they can take a bite on that huge sum of money. And by so doing, they are endangering their lives”

Also speaking in the same vein, the National Chairman of the UPP, Chief Checkwas Okorie, warned the EFCC against any attempt to mess up the laudable policy, adding that government must demonstrate openness and transparency to ensure the success of its implementation.  He said in an interview with Sunday Sun: “I find the controversy a little bit worrisome because the person who gave the information gave it to the appropriate authority, which in this case, is the EFCC. Thereafter, they went to the place and recovered the money. It is only EFCC that can tell the nation the truth. Although they may not necessarily reveal the details about the person because of security implication, they should not make a mess of the policy.”

“It is a good policy that has encouraged people not only to expose corrupt persons, but also to make them a little afraid of being caught up by the long arms of the law. If they mess it up, it will not allow the policy to last. And EFCC will be held responsible for messing up the policy. And it will impact negatively on the drive of this administration to fight corruption with credibility and transparency.”

He also cautioned against undue exposure of whistle blowers to unnecessary risks: “The way they are going about it, they will expose whistleblowers to danger. In the end, they may not enjoy the benefit of their effort because people will go after them. It is also risky because their relations and friends will descend on them for their own share of the windfall. In the final analysis, the whole idea of whistle blowing would have been defeated. So, government must handle it with sincerity, honesty and give compensation to those who have responded to their clarion call.”