President Muhammadu Buhari is considering extending the whistleblower policy to illegal firearms acquisition in the country, with the objective of nesting those involved in clandestine operations.
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By Levinus Nwabughiogu
ABUJA — President Muhammadu Buhari is considering extending the whistleblower policy to illegal firearms acquisition in the country, with the objective of nesting those involved in clandestine operations.
Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu, who disclosed this, yesterday, in Abuja, said the President was happy with the recovery of huge looted funds through the whistleblower policy.
Shehu told State House correspondents that the participation of Nigerians in the mechanism had boosted the tempo of the anti-corruption crusade of Buhari’s administration.
According to him, some of the ways the government is considering empowering the mechanism included either bringing it under the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption, PACAC, or some other body to imbue the process with a strategic national purpose.
“In a word, government thinks that the whistleblower mechanism is too important to be left without a strategic, national direction,” he said.
He also commended the zeal and patriotism of Nigerians in responding positively to the whistleblower incentive policy, saying it was principally intended to expose hidden looted funds.
“No public policy can succeed or go far enough without public support and participation and when the citizens realise they are victims of corruption, they may feel encouraged to join the efforts to expose looted funds,’’ he said.
Shehu explained that the huge and incredible amounts of looted funds being recovered by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, via the whistleblower efforts “is a revelation about the mindless, callous and reckless scale on which Nigeria had been robbed by unpatriotic and egregiously selfish public officials.”
On the proposal to extend the policy to the issue of illegal weapons in the hands of most citizens, Shehu said the weapons were used to fuel intra and inter-communal violence.
He said: “Yes, it is true, the Presidency has received suggestions that call for the whistleblower policy to be extended to the possession of illegal weapons by powerful individuals in the country. The government will look at all that and make a pronouncement.”
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