2 ‘whistle-blowers’ paraded for giving false information

The Special Presidential Investigation Panel for the Recovery of Public Property has paraded two suspects for allegedly giving false information to the panel. The suspects, Prince Jeff Ove, 37, from Bayelsa State, and Mohammed Sanusi, 39, from Kogi State, were paraded before journalists by the spokesperson of the panel, Lucie-Ann Laha, in Abuja on Friday. […]

The Special Presidential Investigation Panel for the Recovery of Public Property has paraded two suspects for allegedly giving false information to the panel.

The suspects, Prince Jeff Ove, 37, from Bayelsa State, and Mohammed Sanusi, 39, from Kogi State, were paraded before journalists by the spokesperson of the panel, Lucie-Ann Laha, in Abuja on Friday.

Laha said the whistle-blower policy was not to impugn on citizen’s reputation, as such it is a crime when information believed to be false was given to the panel.

Laha alleged that the suspects told the panel under oath that a real estate developer and Managing Director of Platinum Mortgage Bank, Emmanuel Mbaka, had looted and stashed huge sums of money in his Abuja home. However investigations revealed that the information was false after the panel had raided Mbaka’s home.

“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. 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.

She added that the whistle blowing policy is meant to encourage Nigerians to assist anti-corruption and law enforcement agencies with credible information to apprehend those that have looted the common wealth of Nigerians. However,  when Nigerians try to use this policy  to malign other Nigerians by giving false information, the law provided for such to be dealt with, she stated.

Speaking to journalists, the suspects maintained that they had no intention to malign the victim but were equally misled by the original informant. “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 and that was why I approached the panel to report but it turned out the information was false,” Ove said.