N13bn Ikoyi Funds: Whistle-blower Already A Millionaire – Magu

Acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Ibrahim Magu, on Thursday said the young man who blew the whistle on the monies found in an apartment in Ikoyi area of Lagos State is already a millionaire.


Magu said this in his address at the ongoing 7th Session of the Conference of States Parties to the United Nations Convention Against Corruption in Vienna, Austria.

According to him, the young man has become a millionaire by virtue of the percentage he is officially entitled to, after EFCC operatives recovered $43,449,947, £27,800 and N23,218,000 from an apartment located at 16, Osborne Road, Ikoyi in April.

“We are currently working on the young man because this is just a man who has not seen one million naira of his own before,” the EFCC boss was quoted on the Commission’s Facebook page.

“So, he is under counselling on how to make good use of the money and also the security implication. We don’t want anything bad to happen to him after taking delivery of his entitlement. He is national pride.”

Magu further called on Nigerians who want a positive change in the country to take advantage of the whistle-blowing policy announced by the Federal Government earlier in 2017.

He said aside from contributing to the eradication of corruption, potential whistle-blowers also stand to benefit from the illicit acquisition by the looters.

“We encourage more whistle-blowers to come forward with genuine information that will lead to recoveries from looters of public treasuries. That is part of the ways we can put an end to the looting madness in the public sector.

“When they know that they have no place to keep the loot, as all eyes are on them, they will find looting of public treasuries unattractive,” he added.

Two months after the monies were recovered, Justice Muslim Hassan of the Federal High Court in Lagos ordered the final forfeiture of the funds to the Federal Government.

“I am in complete agreement with the submission of the learned counsel for the applicant (EFCC) that the property sought to be attached are reasonably suspected to be proceeds of unlawful activities and that by every standard, this huge sum of money is not expected to be kept without going through a designated financial institution.

“More so, nobody has shown cause why the said sum should not be forfeited to the Federal Government of Nigeria. Having regard to the foregoing, I have no other option but to grant this application as prayed,” Justice Hassan had said in his judgment On June 7.

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