The Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami has come out to say that he is not responsible for effecting a whistleblower’s payment.
He revealed this in a recent statement made available to the media by Dr Umar Gwandu, the Special Assistant to the Minister of Justice.
According to him, the payment is usually affected by the Federal Ministry of Finance and not the Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation, so rumors saying otherwise are completely false.
He added that the Office of the Attorney-General will simply process the required documents to the Ministry of Finance, which is the ministry saddled with the responsibility of effecting payment.
His words, “A Proposal is submitted to the Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation, a Letter of engagement is issued to a whistle-blower or recovery agent where the disclosure is assessed to have some prospects of success.
“The recovery agent or whistle-blower is expected to notify in writing the acceptance of the engagement.”
“The recovery agent or whistleblower is expected, upon acceptance, to not only trace the assets however recover same and have it deposited in a designated asset recovery account maintained by the federal government in the Central Bank which is usually provided to the recovery agent in writing.”
“The recovery agent or whistleblower is expected, upon acceptance, to not only trace the assets however recover same and have it deposited in a designated asset recovery account maintained by the federal government in the Central Bank which is usually provided to the recovery agent in writing.”
“It is the satisfaction of the above elements that entitles the whistle-blower or a recovery agent to a claim of success fee and the payment is usually effected by the Federal Ministry of Finance and not the Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation.
“The role of the Office of the Attorney-General, in essence, is simply that of processing the above-listed documents to the Ministry of Finance which is the ministry saddled with the responsibility of effecting payment”.
“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 funds in the designated Asset recovery account through judicial and extrajudicial means.
“Entitlement to recovery fees is for all intent and purposes contingent on lodgment of the purported/exposed assets constituting the subject of recovery into the Federal Government Recovery designated Account.
“This account is maintained at the instance of the President at the Central Bank of Nigeria and the details of the account are contained in the engagement letter.”
“The agreed remuneration shall become due and payable to the whistle-blower within thirty (30) days of the receipt of the recovered/looted funds by the Federal Government of Nigeria and payment shall be made to the designated/nominated account provided in writing by the whistle-blower”.