The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), yesterday revealed how whistle-blowing has led to the recovery of N527, 463, 500, $53, 222, 747, £122, 890 and €547,730.
In his words, “The whistleblowing policy is designed to encourage citizens to volunteer information that could lead to the recovery of stolen funds in return for a token pay out, not more than five per cent of the total recovered sum, as incentive.
“Figures released by the Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun shows that the government as at May this year had recovered N7.8billion, $278million and £27, 800.
The EFCC chairman also noted that its activities were done with the fear of God and political neutrality as well as commitment to the Rule of Law.
That the commission will never shield anyone from investigation and prosecution in accordance with law.
“That said, I will also use this opportunity to highlight some of the major achievements of the commission in the past months. These achievements cover the areas of convictions, Recoveries, Tracking Election Financing, Putting Searchlight on the Judiciary and Accounting for Security Budgets.
“Before we delve into the specifics, it would interest you to note that before now, it was inconceivable for law enforcement agencies to investigate the sources of election funding of political parties and their candidates. This has led to gross financial abuse and the perversion of the electoral process and consequently enthroned bad leadership which in turn led to corruption and bad governance.
“ With our modest achievement in this area, I can assure you that our politicians will be more circumspect as we go into the next general election. And our people have all to gain in this process of disinfecting the electoral process by monitoring the financing of elections because it will help to improve good governance when good candidates are elected not money bags.
“Secondly, before now, military budgets were no-go areas that unfortunately had hemorrhaged our country badly.
“Of course we can say this now with the benefits of hindsight. Numerous senior military officers and their civilian accomplices implicated in the $2.1 billion arms deal fraud were investigated and arrested.
Magu gave more insights into the ongoing moves to cleanse the Judiciary.
He said: “There are also alleged corruption cases involving judges and even senior lawyers. Stories were rife of this alleged corruption so much so that the corrupt are now said to be shopping for “favourable” judges to handle their matters. The EFCC has decisively stepped in to put some Judges and lawyers on trial.
“We have even secured the conviction of a Senior Advocate of Nigeria. We can say that we have helped in building public confidence again in our judiciary. Between January and August 2018, the commission has secured 158 convictions and still counting. While within the same period, we have recovered: N106,516,222,383.68; US$1,635,925.81; £ 629,193.65; and € 25,575.00.
“Nonetheless, the Commission is currently collaborating with the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) to investigate and recover funds and properties within the provisions of the laws. So far, the Commission has recovered over N35 billion for the FIRS and about N4 billion for the AMCON. Tax liabilities of other institutions running into billions of naira have also been identified and the companies have agreed to pay.