The Minister of Information, Culture and Tourism, Alhaji Lai
Mohammed, has stated that money recovered from corrupt persons by the Federal
Government is intact.
Mohammed said the recovered funds would be used for
infrastructural and social development, adding that the Federal Government had
set up an asset recovery committee to ensure that the money recovered from
individuals and organisations were returned to the Ministry of Finance.
The minister, who spoke in Umuahia, the Abia State capital,
on Monday during a town hall meeting with and the inaugutration of ‘The change
begins with me campaign,’ pointed out that the recent whistle-blower policy
introduced by the Federal Government had facilitated looted funds recovery.
He assured Nigerians that nobody could loot any money
recovered from looters under the watch of President Muhammadu Buhari.
He said government was committed to keeping its promise that
certain percentage of any money recovered would go to the person that supplied
the information that would lead to the recovery of stolen money.
The minister blamed the high cost of commodities in the
country on corruption, pointing out that there was no economy that would
experience the level of looting in Nigeria without having prices of goods and
services shoot up.
He said, “If one person was found with almost $10m in an
uncompleted building, another one was found with $136m in a fake account and
another one was also found with N7bn, all this through the whistle-blower policy,
and money that were meant for infrastructural development and services; that is
why you cannot do anything about the economy without fighting corruption.”
On the state of President’s health, Mohammed insisted that
Buhari was not sick but on vacation.
He said, “The President called me at exactly 2.43pm on
Saturday, if he is in the hospital, as the Minister of Information I will do a
news bulletin on that but he is not critically sick nor is he in the hospital,
there is absolutely no cause for alarm.”
Ministers that accompanied Mohammed to the meeting were the
Minister for Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige; the Minister for
Agriculture, Chief Audu Ogbeh; the Minister for Industry, Trade and Investment,
Okechukwu Enelamah; and the Minister of State for Mines and Steel, Abubarkar
Bwari.
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