(Abuja)
The Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice says it only pays whistle-blowers after successful recovery and not for
mere tracing or exposure of suspected illegitimate funds.
This is contained in a statement issued by Dr.Umar Jibrilu Gwandu,
Special Assistant on Media and Public Relations Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice made available journalists in Abuja.
A copy was made available to Duaglobalnews, a kogi state-based online publication in Lokoja on Monday.
The Minister was reacting to a story published by the The Punch newspaper on a pretext of a letter allegedly by one Aliyu Lemu, Esq.purportedly written on June 22nd, 2020 on issues revolving around payment of a whistle-blower’s fees.
Malami said:”The Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice wants to make it categorically clear that, one does not get payment on account of exposing looted assets.
“This is done on successful
recovery and lodgment of same into the designated assets recovery account at the Central Bank of Nigeria.
“The procedure for engagement
of a whistle blower or recovery agent as it relates to the Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation is as follows:
1. A Proposal is submitted to the Office of the
Attorney-General of the Federation
2.A Letter of engagement is issued to a whistle-blower of
recovery agent where the disclosure is assed to have some prospects of
success,
3.The recovery agent or whistle-blower is expected to notify in
writing the acceptance of the engagement,
4.The recovery agent or whistle blower is expected, upon
acceptance, to not only trace the assets but recover same and have it deposited in a designated asset recovery account maintained by the
Federal Government of Nigeria in the Central Bank which is usually provided to the recovery agent in writing.,
5.Where these funds are eventually claimed to have been lodged by a whistle-blower or recovery agent, the Central Bank issue acknowledgement of receipt of the fund to the Office of Attorney-General on demand,
“It is the satisfaction of the above elements that entitles the whistle-blower or a recovery agent to a claim of success fee and the
payment is usually effected by the Federal Ministry of Finance and not the Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation.
“The role of the Office of the Attorney-General in essence is simply that of processing
the above listed documents to the Ministry of Finance which is the Ministry saddled with the responsibility of effecting payment.”
Malami explained further that recovery was not about exposing the existence of certain assets in an account purported to have belonged to an agency of the government.
According to him, it is about establishing that the
funds in the account are looted assets or illegitimately warehoused and following that up with actual recovery and lodgment of the funds
in the designated Asset recovery account, through judicial and extra judicial means.
Malami also said that enntitlement to recovery fees was for all intent and purposes, contingent
on lodgment of the purported/exposed assets constituting the subject
of recovery into the Federal Government Recovery designated account maintained at the instance of the President at the Central Bank of
Nigeria and the details of the account are contained in the engagement
letter. A clause in the letter reads:
He added:“The agreed remuneration shall become due and payable to the
whistle-blower within thirty (30) days of the receipt of the
recovered/looted funds by the Federal Government of Nigeria and payment shall be made the designated/nominated account provided in
writing by the whistle-blower.”
According to the Minister, if the whistle blower in the circumstances of this case feels strongly that there is any claim of wrong doing
associated with the alleged claim relating to recovery process, he should consider lodging a complaint with the relevant institutions of his choice for the matter to be properly investigated
and or consider a judicial redress in the alternative.
“The claim by the whistle-blower, as published by the paper, that the Office of the Attorney-General of the Federal cajoled them into signing of an agreement forfeiting sixty percent of the whistle-blower fees amounts to criminal allegation which the whistle-blower is encouraged to lodge complaints before the appropriate law enforcement agencies for full-scale investigation,
“The Attorney-General shall, however, in line with established tradition of subjecting matters attacking his reputation, submit the
whistle-blowers’ mischievous allegation to judicial determination as done previously with The Cable when its maliciously published a story casting aspersion against the Attorney-General on matters relating to the Abacha loot.” Malami concluded.
