FG Recovers $177m Loot From Three Sources In Two Months

Buoyed by its successes in the anti-graft war recently, the Federal Government on Sunday said it recovered about $151 million and N8 billion ($26.32 million) in stolen state funds in less than two months of implementing its whistle-blower policy.
A statement by Alhaji Lai Mohammed, Minister of Information and Culture said “the looted funds … were recovered from just three sources through whistleblowers who gave actionable information to the office of the Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation.
“The biggest amount of $136,676,600.51 was recovered from an account in a commercial bank, where the money was kept under an apparently fake account name,” he added.
Another N7 billion and $15 million, he noted, were recovered from a second person, while yet another N1 billion came from a third suspect, without giving the identity of those involved.
“When we told Nigerians that there was a primitive and mindless looting of the National Treasury under the last administration, some people called us liars.
President Muhammadu Buhari launched a whistleblower scheme in late December, offering those who help find stolen assets up to five percent of the recovered sums in a bid to root out endemic corruption from the country.
The Economic & Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had on Wednesday said it seized $9.2 million in cash from the former Group Managing Director of the state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) possibly also under the whistleblower programme.
This was followed on Saturday with the commission announcing the discovery of a 15-storey mansion belonging to Mrs. Dieziani Allison-Madueke, former Minister of Petroleum Resources, tucked in highbrow Banana, Ikoyi Lagos.
The commission said the property was allegedly acquire through a shell company-Rusimpex Limited under the control of one Mr. Afamefuna Nwokedi of Stillwaters law fine in Lagos, between 2011 and 2012, at the cost of $37.5 million from the developers- YF Construction Development and Real Estate.
The property was identified as Building 3, Block B, which comprises of 18 flats and six penthouses, Bella Vista at Plot 1, Zone N, Federal Government Layout, Banana Island Layout, Foreshore Estate, off Onikoyi Road, Ikoyi, Lagos.
The commission said further investigations are ongoing.
The ex-Minister, a tin-god in the Goodluck Jonathan administration is reported to own breath-taking properties in London, Lagos and Abuja, among others.