Pro-Buhari group urges Nigerians to embrace FG’s whistle-blower policy

The Buhari Media Support Group has urged Nigerians to embrace Federal Government’s whistle-blower policy, saying recent recovery of looted funds was a proof that the strategy was dependable.

In a statement in Abuja on Tuesday, the group noted that the policy had started aiding the Economic and Financial Commission’s (EFCC) in recovering funds stolen by former government officials.

The statement by group’s Coordinator, Mallam Muhammad Labbo, and Secretary, Chief Cassidy Madueke, particularly attributed recent recovery of 9.8 million dollars from former Group Managing Director of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to the policy.

“The policy has given EFCC the teeth for the necessary bite needed in carrying out its functions,’’ the statement said.

Alluding to the recovery of 151 million dollars and N8 billion by the anti-graft commission, in a few weeks, it condemned the spate of looting of public funds in the country.

It stated that if the high incidence of looting the nation’s treasury was not halted, “it will further bring Nigeria to its knees’’.

It said that any doubts that treasure-looting was “the main business of officials who served in former President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration’’, had been erased by the most recent recovery of looted funds by the EFCC.

The group said it was convinced that huge sums of looted funds were still in accounts and vaults of many other former officials of the immediate past government.

It, therefore, urged the EFCC to step of its game in the “looted funds recovery project’’.

It said that such funds, when recovered, could rightly fund national budget for the next several years, and urged the EFCC to ensure the prosecution of the culprits.

“We commend the whistle-blower initiative by the Federal Government which we are convinced has opened the vista of opportunities for ordinary Nigerians to put eyes on the management of their resources.

“It has given them a mind-set to report further stealing of their commonwealth by those elected or appointed to serve their interests.

“We also urge all Nigerians to align with the principle of whistle-blowing with a resolve to support the anti-graft agencies in their drive to rid Nigeria of acts of corruption, especially looting of public funds,” it said.

The group expressed optimism that the “nation’s economy will start looking up’’ given the initiatives so far put in place by the government.

It identified the rise in the nation’s external reserve as a positive sign that the economy was on the path of growth again after several years of decline.