Payment to Ikoyi whistle-blower delayed because he may run mad when he see the money - Presidential advisory chairman insists (Details, pics)

The commission due to be paid to the whistle-blower who informed the EFCC of the N13bn in an Ikoyi apartment was delayed because the federal government does not want him to run mad, senior lawyer, Itse Sagay has said.

Sagay, who is the chairman of the presidential advisory committee against corruption made the statement on Monday, November 13, in an interview with the Punch.

The presidential aide maintained that the government believed the whistle-blower needed to be adequately counselled before being paid the commission.

"What I gathered from my inquiry is that the man is not sufficiently stable to receive such a huge sum of money. He is like someone who will almost run mental when he gets the money and will use it in an irresponsible manner, attracting not only undesirable people but even danger to himself,” Sagay said.

He said the whistle-blower probably would have squandered the commission if it was given to him immediately. “I think what they wanted to do for him was to provide counsellors. Not just counsellors for character and mental situation but counsellors who would be like consultants that would help him to really invest the money and plan in such a way that he doesn’t throw it away in five minutes.

“They are trying to help him. Nobody is denying him anything. They are trying to help him but he just misunderstands the intention and like everyone that has been deprived for a long time, he is so desperate to have it but from what I can see, if they just give him everything, it won’t last more than a month or two because so many people will start finding ways to get to him and taking their portions from him. So, they were just trying to help him but he became hysterical.”Sagay backed the decision of the federal government to pay the whistle-blower in trenches, saying it would prevent him from spending all the money at once.

Meanwhile, the EFCC has clarified remarks credited to its Acting Chairman, Mr Ibrahim Magu, concerning the Ikoyi whistleblower on Thursday.

Spokesman of the commission, Mr Wilson Uwujaren, stated that Magu never said the whistleblower had been paid his compensation as being insinuated in a section of the media.

The informant had provided intelligence that led to the recovery of $43.5 million, £27,800 and N23.2 million stashed in an apartment on Osborne Towers in Ikoyi, Lagos on April 7. By the federal government’s whistleblower policy that took effect in December, 2016 informants are entitled to between two and five per cent of the looted money they helped to recover.

Uwujaren had quoted the EFCC acting chairman as saying in Vienna, Austria, that the Ikoyi whistleblower was now a millionaire by “virtue of the percentage he is officially entitled to’’.