By Saminu Ibrahim
The Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN) has stated that government only pays whistle-blowers after successful recovery 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 and made available to newsmen in Abuja on Sunday.
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.
The Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister ofJustice wants to make it categorically clear that one does not get payment on account of exposing looted assets, but on successful recovery and lodgment of same into the designated assets recovery account at the Central Bank of Nigeria. The procedure for engagementof a whistle blower or recovery agent as it relates to the Office ofthe 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 ofrecovery agent where the disclosure is assed to have some prospects of success,
3. The recovery agent or whistle-blower is expected to notify inwriting 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 ofAttorney-General on demand,
It is the satisfaction of the above elements that entitles thewhistle-blower or a recovery agent to a claim of success fee and the payment is usually effected by the Federal Ministry of Finance and notthe Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation. The role of the Office of the Attorney-General in essence is simply that of processingthe above listed documents to the Ministry of Finance which is the Ministry saddled with the responsibility of effecting payment,
Malami explained further that recovery is not about exposing theexistence of certain assets in an account purported to have belongedto an agency of the government. 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 fundsin the designated Asset recovery account through judicial and extrajudicial means.
Entitlement to recovery fees is for all intent and purposes contingenton lodgment of the purported/exposed assets constituting the subject of recovery into the Federal Government Recovery designated Accountmaintained at the instance of the President at the Central Bank ofNigeria and the details of the account are contained in the engagement letter. A clause in the letter reads:
“The agreed remuneration shall become due and payable to thewhistle-blower within thirty (30) days of the receipt of therecovered/looted funds by the Federal Government of Nigeria andpayment shall be made the designated/nominated account provided inwriting by the whistle-blower”.
Malami encouraged that if the whistle blower in the circumstances ofthis case feels strongly that there is any claim of wrong doingassociated with the alleged claim relating to recovery process, the whistle-blower should consider lodging a complaint with the relevantinstitutions of his choice for the matter to be properly investigatedand or consider a judicial redress in the alternative.
The claim by the whistle-blower, as published by the paper, that theOffice of the Attorney-General of the Federal cajoled them intosigning of an agreement forfeiting sixty percent of the whistle-blowerfees amounts to criminal allegation which the whistle-blower isencouraged to lodge complaint before the appropriate law enforcementagencies 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 asdone previously with The Cable when its maliciously publish a storycasting aspersion against the Attorney-General on matters relating to the Abacha loot.
