Two men in trouble over false whistle blowing on bank MD
Public Property has arrested two whistle blowers for allegedly
misleading it with false information.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the alleged false
information was provided against Mr Emmanuel Mbaka, foremost real
estate developer and Managing Director of Platinum Mortgage Bank.
The male suspects, Prince Jeff Ove, 37, from Bayelsa, and Mohammed
Sanusi, 39, from Kogi, were presented to newsmen by the spokesperson
of the panel, Lucie-Ann Laha, in Abuja on Friday.
"We received information from the suspects that the victim was a
politician who looted a large amount of money and stashed it in his
house.
"We have found out that the person is not a politician. I don't think
association with politicians automatically makes you a politician.
"We were told there was a large cache of money in his house. The panel
has carried out a thorough investigation, turned the house inside out
and we found nothing,'' she said.
Laha, who apologised to Mbaka on behalf of the panel, said the
suspects would be prosecuted to show that the Federal Government's
Whistle-blower Policy was not an instrument of character
assassination.
"The policy is meant to encourage Nigerians to assist anti-corruption
agencies with credible information to apprehend those that have looted
the commonwealth of Nigerians.
"Anyone who brings information to the panel and any other
anti-corruption agency is assured of confidentiality and certain
rewards.
"Conversely, when Nigerians try to circumvent this policy by giving
false information in a bid to malign other Nigerians, the law says we
should reprimand them, which is what we are doing here today,'' she
said.
Speaking to newsmen, the two suspects said they were misled by
informants, and apologised to Mbaka while pleading with the panel for
forgiveness.
Ove said, "I was in Bayelsa when I got information that there was a
fund that a politician kept in Abuja here.
"We came and someone introduced me to a friend, who also corroborated
the information that has turned out to be false, and that was why I
approached the panel to report.
"Once again, I apologise to the man, I am very sorry, I have learnt my
lessons and I promise this will never happen again.''
On his part, Sanusi said sometime in March, 2017, one Aliyu told him
that he knew a house in Abuja where stolen money was being kept.
He said he never bothered to take the information to anti-corruption
agencies because Aliyu had said he wasn't too sure of its
authenticity.
"But the brother of this very man (Ove) standing beside me here came
all the way from Bayelsa and said he had a special power to enter the
house and search it.
"He said all I needed to do was to show him the house, and he made me
to understand that with the power he acquired from India he would be
able to know whether the money was there or not.
"When we got there, he told me that the spirit had told him that there
was money in the house, and that we should give him a little time to
work on it,'' he said.
Sanusi said he never knew that Ove and his unidentified brother had
already approached the panel to inform it about the supposed money.
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