Yakubu Galadima, the lawyer for the whistle-blower, who informed the
EFCC of the $43m, N23.2m and £27,800 (N13bn) recovered from an Ikoyi
apartment, says his client will not accept anything below five per cent
commission.
Galadima said this during a chat with Punch on Saturday.
The Secretary of the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption,
Prof. Bolaji Owasanoye, at an event on Thursday titled, ‘Tracking
Noxious Funds’, which was organised by Kent University Law School and
Human and Environmental Development Agency, had explained that any
whistle-blower, who helped the government to recover anything above N1bn
would receive less than 5%.
Owasanoye, who was part of the team that drafted the whistle-blower
policy had said, “If you blow the whistle and the government recovers
cash, you are entitled to between 2.5 and 5 percent.
The maximum limit is five per cent.
“According to the policy, if you blow the whistle and it is below N500m,
you get four to five per cent because the higher the amount that is
recovered, the lower the percentage that is given. This is the global
best practice.
“If the recovery is between N500m and N1bn, you get three to four
percent (commission). If it is N1bn and above, it is 2.5 per cent.
Indeed, there is a clause that we included in the policy to say that the
government may determine the amount to be awarded based on other
criteria provided that the amount to be awarded doesn’t exceed five
percent. In other words, the government may actually pay less than 2.5
percent but nobody can be paid more than five per cent.”
However, the whistle-blower’s lawyer said his client would not accept anything less than 5 per cent.
When asked if his client would accept anything less than five per cent, he said, “Not at all.”
Galadima had stated last week that the commission his client was expecting from Federal Government was N860m and not N325m.
He had also stated that the commission should be paid based on the
exchange rate at the time the money was recovered and not the current
one.
Attempts to get comments from Ministry of Finance were not successful as
calls and a text message sent to the Director of Information in the
ministry, Mr. Salisu Dambatta, were not responded to.
Beneficiary to be paid before Thursday, says ministry official
Meanwhile, there are indications that the Ministry of Finance is
awaiting the final clearance from the EFCC before it can pay the Ikoyi
whistleblower.
Officials in the ministry confided in Punch that the whistle-blower was expected to be paid before the end of this month.
However, it was gathered that while the ministry was ready to make the
payment, the move could be delayed as administrative work was still
ongoing on the issue.
The official said the ministry had put in place detailed procedures for processing payments under the whistle-blower policy.
These procedures, according to the official, were designed to prevent
abuse, legal disputes and to ensure protection of the information
providers.
He stated that the identity of the information provider must be
verified, adding that there would be calculation of the amount payable
and computation of relevant taxes.
