Yakubu
Galadima, the lawyer for the whistle-blower, who informed the Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission 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.
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 per cent and five per cent. 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 per cent
(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 per cent. In other words, the government may
actually pay less than 2.5 per cent but nobody can be paid more than five per
cent.”
However,
the Ikoyi whistle-blower’s lawyer told Sunday Punch on Saturday
that his client would not accept anything less than five 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 the
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 the 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.
- Punch
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