The lawyer to the three friends who blew
the whistle on the sums of $43,449,947, £27,800 and N23,218,000
recovered from an apartment in Ikoyi, Lagos, last April, has written a
letter to President Muhammadu Buhari, demanding that the Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) should immediately pay the commission
due to the whistle blowers.
On the same day, the EFCC clarified that
it never said that the whistle blowers in the Ikoyi flat saga had been
paid as reported in the media.
The acting chairman of the commission,
Ibrahim Magu had on Thursday remarked that the “young man who blew the
whistle is now a millionaire.” Magu spoke in Vienna, Austria.
Surprisingly, the lawyer to the whistle
blowers, Yakubu Galadima, also alleged that those who facilitated the
recovery of the monies were three and not one as claimed by the EFCC.
Galadima, in his letter titled, “Request
for payment of reward/commission due to whistle blowers who facilitated
the recovery of sums of monies at No. 7B, Osborne Tower, Ikoyi, Lagos
by Economic and Financial Crimes Commission” and dated October 10, 2017,
said: “My clients, being aware that the aforesaid sums were discretely
warehoused and concealed in the Ikoyi address approached me with a view
to informing the Federal Government of Nigeria through the EFCC of the
existence and location of the monies.
“Consequently, I facilitated a meeting
between my clients and an official of the EFCC (Ahmed Ghali to be
precise) which led to the monies being discovered and ultimately
forfeited to the Federal Government of Nigeria pursuant to a final
forfeiture order of the Federal High Court made on 6th June 2017 and
24th July 2017 respectively.
“Enclosed herewith are duly acknowledged
copies of the said letters for ease of reference. Please note that the
discovery was as a direct result of my clients’ efforts and
consequently, I respectfully urge Your Excellency to use your good
offices to facilitate the prompt payment of the reward/commission due to
my clients.
“This will go a long way in gaining the
confidence of the citizens over the laudable whistle blowing policy.
While counting on your avowed commitment to fighting corruption in
Nigeria, please remain assured of my professional regards.”
Magu, who spoke at the 7th Session of
the Conference of States Parties to the United Nations Convention
Against Corruption in Vienna, was quoted as saying that the whistle
blower was already a millionaire by virtue of the percentage he was
officially entitled to.
“We are currently working with the young man because this is a man who had never seen N1 million of his own before.
“So he is now undergoing counseling on how to make good use of the money and also the security implications.
“We don’t want anything bad to happen to
him after taking delivery of his entitlement. He is a national pride,”
the EFCC boss said.
Magu called on Nigerians who want
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 the public treasury.
“These are part of the ways that we can bring an end to the madness of looting in the public sector.
“When they know that they have no place
to keep their loot, as all eyes will be on them, they will find looting
of the public treasury unattractive,” Magu added.
But the EFCC in its statement yesterday
denied that its Acting Chairman said the whistle blower had been paid,
based on the statement quoted by the media.
The EFCC Head of Media and Publicity, Wilson Uwujaren, said there was no iota of truth in the report.
He said: “What Magu said at the 7th
Session of the Council of State Parties to the United Nations Convention
Against Corruption in Vienna, Austria, was that citizens should be
encouraged to embrace whistle blowing because of the incentives
attached.
“To illustrate this, he stated that the
gentleman who provided the information that triggered the huge recovery
at Osborne Towers in Ikoyi was already a millionaire based on the
incentive in the whistle blower policy where information providers are
entitled to between 2.5 and 5 % of the recovered sum.
“Magu never said that the young man had
been paid. The Commission is not even directly responsible for the
payment of rewards to whistle blowers. There is also no controversy
about the exact amount recovered in the operation which was streamed
live, the first of its kind, and witnessed by the whistle blower,
security at the Towers and representative of the Agency which claimed
ownership of the money.”
The controversy over the fortunes of the
whistle blower is coming just as the Federal High Court in Lagos
ordered the temporary forfeiture of Flat 7B, Osborne Towers, Ikoyi,
where the cash was discovered.
Justice Saliu Saidu ordered the
forfeiture of the flat to the federal government Thursday, following an
ex parte application by the EFCC.
Upon making the interim forfeiture
order, the judge gave anyone interested in the property 14 days to
appear before him to show cause why it should not be permanently
forfeited to the federal government.
He ordered the EFCC to publish the forfeiture order in a national newspaper, to serve as notice to any interested party.
The EFCC had earlier named Mrs. Oke as the owner of the flat.
The EFCC said it found out that Mrs. Oke
made cash payment of $1,658,000 for the purchase of the flat between
August 25 and September 3, 2015.
She was said to have purchased the
property in the name of a company, Chobe Ventures Limited, to which she
and her son, Master Ayodele Oke Junior, are directors.
Payment for the purchase of the flat was
said to have been made to Fine & Country Realty International,
which handled the sale.
The EFCC stated that Mrs. Oke made the
cash payment in tranches of $700,000, $650,000 and $353,700 to a bureau
de change company, Sulah Petroleum and Gas Limited, which later
converted the sums to N360,000,000 and subsequently paid it to Fine
& Country for the purchase of the property.
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