Lawyers to the unnamed whistle blower behind the recovery Ikoyi billions has reportedly denied an assertion by the Acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Ibrahim Magu that the young man is already millionaire.
Specifically, the lawyers reportedly said the whistle blower has in fact, not been paid.
On its part, the EFCC has issued a counter statement saying Magu never said the whistle blower has been paid.
But what exactly did Magu say ? We have reproduced below the text of EFCC statement which ignited the controversy :
EFCC Press release: Magu Charges Nigerians to Embrace Whistle Blowing
Acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Ibrahim Magu has 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.
Magu who made the call at the ongoing 7th Session of the Conference of States Parties to the United Nations Convention Against Corruption holding in Vienna, Austria said aside from contributing to the eradication of corruption, potential whistle blowers also stand to benefit from the illicit acquisition by the looters.
According to him, the young man who blew the whistle on the $43,449,947, £27,800 and N23,218,000 recovered on April 7, 2017 by the EFCC in an apartment located at 16, Osborne Road, Ikoyi is already a millionaire by virtue of the percentage he is 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 counselling 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 national pride”, he said.
He continued, ” 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 “.
It would be recalled that a Federal High Court sitting in Lagos and presided by Justice Muslim Hassan had on June 7, 2017 ordered the final forfeiture of the total sum of $43,449,947, £27,800 and N23,218,000 to the federal government.
Justice Hassan had in his judgment said: “I am in complete agreement with the submission of the learned counsel for the applicant (EFCC) that the property sought to be attached are reasonably suspected to be proceeds of unlawful activities and that by every standard this huge sum of money is not expected to be kept without going through a designated financial institution. More so, nobody has shown cause why the said sum should not be forfeited to the federal government of Nigeria. Having regard to the foregoing, I have no other option but to grant this application as prayed”.
