Nigeria recovers more than $177 million in stolen state funds

ABUJA, Nigeria—Nigeria has recovered more than $177 million plundered from the government, thanks to an anti-graft policy launched in December, the information ministry announced on Sunday.

The recovered funds came from only three sources. Under the whistleblower policy, people who report corruption or offer helpful information to security officials can receive up to 5 percent of the recovered money.

The government recovered more than $136 million from a commercial bank account guised under a fake name, Information Minister Lai Mohammed said. It also uncovered more than $18 million from one person, and found $3 million with another person. Security officials recovered the money in both dollars and Nigeria’s naira.

“It is doubtful if any economy in the world will not feel the impact of such mind-boggling looting of the treasury as was experienced in Nigeria,” Mohammed said.

In a separate raid earlier this month, Nigeria’s anti-corruption watchdog agency seized more than $9.8 million in cash from Andrew Yakubu, the former head of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation. Officers with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission discovered the cash in a fireproof case at a slum building in Nigeria’s northern Kaduna state. Yakubu said he received the money as gifts. He already faces money-laundering charges with the commission.

Solomon Sobabe with the Center for Democracy in Lagos told me the raid is a good development but called on the government to act impartially in uncovering stolen state funds.

“Let the government also show it’s serious in fighting corruption from all angles, whether it’s within or outside of the government,” Sobabe said. “This will give more confidence to the people.”

Timothy Adewale, an attorney with the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), said the whistleblower scheme is a good way to rid the country of corruption. SERAP monitors the government to ensure no one steals the recovered funds again, and called on officials to publicize what they do with the money.

“The citizens should feel the impact of the money being injected back into the economy,” Adewale said. “Tell us how you’re getting it back into the system, and what you’re spending it on.”