"Ikoyi Whistle-blower Is Mad" - EFCC Says, Takes Him To Psychiatric Hospital

Taken to Yaba Psychiatric hospital
He has not been paid his N850m reward —
Lawyer
JUST like the drama and surprises that trailed
the discovery of $43.5 million, £27,800 and
N23.2 million at No. 16 Osborne Road, in Lagos,
the matter has taken another dramatic
dimension with the whistle-blower dismissing
the claims by the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission, EFCC, that he had gone mad
He, however, said he was only disturbed by the
failure of the anti-graft agency to pay him the
reward for exposing the loot in accordance with
the whistle-blowing policy of the Federal
Government.
Saturday Vanguard recalls that the government
had in 2016 approved a policy on whistle-
blowing that aimed at encouraging Nigerians to
report financial crimes.
The Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, who
announced the policy, said anyone, who
provided information leading to the recovery of
fund would be entitled to not more than five
per cent of the recovered sum.
However, the revelations about the Ikoyi
whistle-blower which were made by his lawyer,
Mr. Yakubu Galadima in a chat with Premium
Times, yesterday, were contrary to claims by the
Chairman of EFCC, Mr. Ibrahim Magu that the
person had been paid.
Shouting that he needed his money
Magun had at the 7th session of the Conference
of State Parties to the United Nations
Convention against Corruption, said the whistle-
blower had become a millionaire.
He said: "We are currently working on the young
man because this is just a man who has not
seen one million Naira of his own before. So he
is under counselling on how to make use of the
money and also the security implication. We
don't want anything bad to happen to him after
taking delivery of his entitlement. He is a
national pride.''
While puncturing the claims that the whistle-
blower had become a millionaire, Galadima said
his client had been subjected to unfair
treatment despite heeding the call to expose
looters.
He said the inability of the commission to pay
his client the reward after the forfeiture of the
money made him to start shouting that he
needed his money at the Department of State
Security Service, DSS, apartment where he was
kept.
At that point, the lawyer said his client was
accused of being insane, resulting in his
relocation to EFCC office from where he was
taken to Yaba Psychiatric Hospital.
They said he is mad
His words: "The day we went to the office of the
then Acting President, they gave him a number
that he could reach at any time. So he has been
communicating with the Vice- President.
Following the threats, they detailed some SSS to
be working around him. "Because the guy had
always been looking forward to seeing this
money and it wasn't forthcoming, he started
shouting. When he started shouting, they said
he was mad, that he is having a mental
problem.
"The SSS people called me and said I should
come and carry my luggage. They brought him
to the EFCC and abandoned him there. The
EFCC people called me that I should come and
carry my client.
''On getting to the commission's office, I was
informed of my client's mental illness and plans
to take him to the Federal Neuro-Psychiatric
Hospital in Yaba.
"I said he is not mad, that it is because you
people are holding his money that is why he is
reacting this way. They insisted that the guy was
mad, that they had to take him to a psychiatric
hospital. They bundled this man. I said ok if
that is how to prove that he is not mad, no
problem. We went to the psychiatric hospital in
Yaba
.
"They injected him and said they have to
monitor him for a month. They monitored him
for a month. The day they were going to release
him, the EFCC called me again to come and
carry my "critical asset.
'' This was a boy I never knew from Adam. I said
ok, I went to the EFCC, the guy said he was ok,
there was no problem anymore. They handed
him over to me three weeks ago. I pay money
into his account on a weekly basis for his
upkeep.''
A letter to the President Galadima further
disclosed that he had written a letter to the
President demanding that the boy be paid his
money.
The letter which was said to have been written
on October 12, 2017, partly reads: ''While you
were away receiving treatment I wrote twice to
the Acting President through the office of the
Acting Chairman of the EFCC on 7th June 2017
and 24th July 2017 respectively.
Because the money discovered was about N17
billion and not N13 billion that is being declared.
It was calculated as at the time the money was
recovered." He, however, dismissed reports that
his client would receive N350 million reward,
saying that the actual figure was N850 million.
An effort by Saturday Vanguard to get the
reaction of the Spokesperson of the EFCC, Mr.
Wilson Uwajuren was not fruitful as he did not
pick his calls.
However, Uwujaren, in a statement yesterday
said Magu never said the whistleblower had
been paid his compensation.