The whistleblower responsible for the uncovering of the whopping amount of money stashed away in a flat at Osborne Tower, Ikoyi, Lagos is to get his cash reward soon.
This was made known on Sunday by the Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, in Abuja.
According to a statement by her Special Adviser, Oluyinka Akintunde, the minister said the government had not withheld the reward due to the whistleblower.
According to her, there were detailed procedures for processing such money and they had to be followed to avoid abuse or other discrepancies.
The statement reads: “The attention of the Honourable Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, has been drawn to media reports surrounding the payment to a whistleblower, who provided the tips that led to the recovery of funds stashed away in a property in Ikoyi, Lagos State.
“The Honourable Minister wishes to state unequivocally that the Federal Government has not withheld any fund due to any whistleblower. The Ministry has in place detailed procedures for processing payments due under the Whistleblower Policy. The procedures were designed to prevent abuse and legal disputes and to ensure protection of the information providers.
“These procedures include an application by the agency who recovered the funds including evidence of the recovery, confirmation that there are no pending legal issues on the recovery, verification of the identity of the information provider, calculation of the amount payable and computation of relevant taxes.
“It must be stated also that payments are made in monthly batches to ensure control and to protect the identity of information providers. To date, over 20 of such persons have been paid. From available records, the payment due on Ikoyi is among those being processed in the November batch, which will be released within the current month.
READ ALSO: Ex-VP Ekwueme flown abroad for treatment
“The Minister reiterates that the Whistleblowing Policy of the Federal Government remains one of the current Administration’s successful initiatives and that the Government is fully committed to ensuring that all those who responded to the policy and partnered with Government in the recovery effort are paid in full and most importantly have their identity protected.
“The Whistleblower Policy was introduced in December 2016 by the Federal Government as part of the initiatives to wage war against corruption.”
It would be recalled that the Osborne Tower, Ikoyi money – $43 million, £27,800 and N23 million – was discovered in April.
It was said to belong to the National Intelligence Agency under the watch of Ayo Oke as director general.
A probe was initiated by the Presidency with Vice President Yemi Osinbajo as the head of the panel.
Ayo Oke was indicted in the report that followed and he was fired by President Muhammadu Buhari.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has since begun its own prosecution with the invitation of Ayo Oke and his wife.
Mrs. Oke was said to own the flat in which the money was kept.
Meanwhile, a Federal High Court in Lagos had ordered the forfeiture of the money recovered.
Also, the flat, last week, was forfeited to the government.
