Magu didn't say whistleblower has been paid - EFCC

The EFCC Spokesman, Mr Wilson Uwujaren, had quoted Magu as saying that the man who provided the information that led to the recovery of $43.5m, £27,800 and N23.2m stashed in an apartment on Osborne Towers in Ikoyi, Lagos on April 7, is already a millionaire.

Magu also reportedly said that the informant became rich overnight by "virtue of the percentage he is officially entitled to."

Federal Government's whistleblower policy which took effect in December, 2016 stipulates that informants are entitled to between two and five per cent of the looted money they help to recover.

"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.

"So, he is under counseling 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 a national pride", Magu reportedly told a United Nations anti-corruption conference in Vienna, Austria.

However, one Yakubu Galadima claiming to be a lawyer to the whistleblower reportedly countered the EFCC boss, saying his client has not been paid.

Galadima was also said to have said that the recovered amount "was N17bn and not the N13bn being declared."

Reacting to Galadima's claims on Friday, November 10, the EFCC spokesman, Uwujaren said the commission is not responsible for the payment of rewards to whistleblowers.

He said, "What Magu said at the 7th Session of the Council of State Parties to the United Nations Convention Against Corruption in Vienna, Austria, was that citizens should be encouraged to embrace whistle blowing because of the incentives attached.

"To illustrate this, he stated that the gentleman who provided the information that triggered the huge recovery at Osborne Towers in Ikoyi was already a millionaire based on the incentive in the whistle blower policy where information providers are entitled to between 2.5 and 5 per cent of the recovered sum.

"Magu never said that the young man has been paid. The commission is not even directly responsible for the payment of rewards to whistle blowers."

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Uwujaren added that the exact amount recovered in the Osborne Towers operation was never a subject of controversy as the counting of the money was streamed live.

He said the counting was also witnessed by the whistle blower, security at the Towers and representative of the agency which claimed ownership of the money.