FOLLOWING the spate of huge money discoveries by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the police through the whistle-blower policy of the Federal Government, indications have emerged that politicians are now screening housemaids, security guards and those who manage their accounts in different banks.
Investigations by Saturday Tribune revealed that a number of politicians have reduced the involvement of many of their personal guards and maids in their activities in the wake of the whistle-blower policy.
It was learnt that many politicians are suspicious that their account managers in the banks might be collaborating with law enforcement agencies in view of the five per cent grant promised for a successful whistle-blowing.
“The whistle-blower policy is causing a lot of strained relationships between big-money men and some banks. There are strong suspicions that some bank officials are collaborating with agents of EFCC and the police to leak the contents of certain accounts,” a source said.
It was gathered that in situations where the politicians could afford to sack their immediate staff, that is already being done, while staff that have been found to be untrustworthy are being kept at bay by limiting their knowledge of their financial activities.
“The introduction of that policy has reduced the level of trust between politicians and many of the staff they previously related with freely,” said another source who also affirmed that there is a growing suspicion among politically exposed persons that bank officials are doing many people in.
The police are said to have discovered close to N200 million in the wake of the whistle-blower policy while the EFCC has made huge money discoveries across the country.
Aside from discovering the sum of N49 million at Kaduna airport, the EFCC announced a N448 million haul in a shopping mall in Lagos and another N250 million in a Lagos market before the discovery of about N15 billion in foreign and local currencies at Osbourne Towers in Ikoyi, Lagos.
The decision to keep some huge funds away from banks, according to sources, has been partially informed by the conviction that some bank officials are also interested in the five per cent the government promised while-blowers.
“There are strong suspicions that account officers in banks are not too clean in some of the discoveries, especially the funds so far recovered by the police in recent times,” a source stated.
“The recent recruitment of low level operatives and their deployment as detectives by the EFCC is of a lot of concern to politically exposed persons who fear such junior persons could be employed in error as domestic helps.
“Indeed, there are fears that even private security firms guarding banks and other companies of interest could be harbouring whistle-blowers and operatives,” a source close to a state governor told Saturday Tribune on Friday.
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