Nigeria recovers more looted funds

The Nigerian government said Sunday it had recovered another 151 million U.S. dollars and 8 billion naira (over 25 million dollars) looted funds from three sources through whistle-blowers.

Minister of Information and Culture Lai Mohammed disclosed this in a statement issued in Lagos, the nation's economic hub.

Mohammed sad actionable information given by whistle-blowers to the office of the Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation led to the recovery of the looted fund.

He said the looted funds do not include the 9.2 million dollars in cash allegedly owned by a former Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), also a dividend of the whistle-blower policy.

The minister said the biggest amount of 136.7 million dollars was recovered from an account in a commercial bank, where the money was kept under an apparently fake account name.

The minister reiterated the position of government that there was a primitive and mindless looting of the national treasury under the last administration.

He said the whistle-blower policy has started yielding fruit, few months after its adoption by the government.

According to him, the whistle-blower policy is barely two months old and Nigerians have started feeling its impact, how a few people squirreled away public funds.

"It is doubtful if any economy in the world will not feel the impact of such mindboggling looting of the treasury as was experienced in Nigeria," he added.

"Yet whatever has been recovered so far, including the 9.2 million dollars by the anti graft police, is just a tip of the iceberg," he said.

The minister appealed to Nigerians with useful information on looted funds to continue to provide the authorities with such information, saying confidentiality will be maintained with regards to the source of the information.

He also reminded Nigerians of the financial reward aspect of the policy. Endit