Whistle-blower Fever: Another N8.4 Billion Has Been Discovered

The recent whistle blower fever running through the country seems to be paying off in no small measure at least for the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC. The commission claimed that it has been led to a suspicious account with no signatories but containing N8.4 billion Naira. The Nation, however, claims that a telecommunications company has gone to court to claim ownership of the money.

“The probe of the account by detectives showed that the funds were routed through the account of a telecoms giant but there was no disclosure of the signatories to the account. Also, the list of depositors into the account was unknown but the sequence of deposits was tracked by detectives.” NAN claims a source close to the case revealed.

According to The News Agency of Nigeria, the account was discovered in EcoBank while the EFCC has filed an ex parte motion to place it under temporary assets forfeiture to prevent the money from being moved out of the account.

The source confirmed that an ex -parte application had been filed at the Federal High Court 11 in Lagos, presided over by Justice Abdulazeez Anka, to recover the cash under temporary forfeiture.

This continues the steady stream of hidden funds suddenly discovered by the Federal Government due to its whistleblower policy, which according to the Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed, has led to the recovery of $151 million and N8billion.

However, one has to wonder about the legality of EcoBank opening a bank account without any known signatory. Similarly, since the EFCC claimed that there have been several deposits from unknown sources. With the banks having a responsibility to report suspicious activities on any bank account, why has EcoBank not yet reported this account? Or is a nameless bank account with a steady stream of deposits not considered suspicious enough?