African Centre for Media and Information Literacy, AFRICMIL, has warned that the ongoing fight against corruption will be threatened by the continued alleged persecution of whistleblowers.
The group gave the warning against the backdrop of alleged victimisation of two whistleblowers in the public service whereby their salaries were said to be withheld.
AFRICMIL gave the warning on Wednesday in a statement issued by its co-ordinator, Mr. Chido Onumah.
“Unless we commit to sustaining the confidence of whistleblowers by ensuring their full protection, whistleblowing will not deliver the result we all expect,” Onumah said.
He stated that it was “most disturbing that citizens who, at the risk of their personal safety, decided to heed the call of the government to blow the whistle on improper behaviour in the society are being punished, despite promises for their safety and protection.”
He said that abominable reprisals were continually being visited on whistleblowers in a manner that endangered whistleblowing as a tool for reducing corruption in the country.
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According to him, an Assistant Director in the SERVICOM unit of the Department of Technical Cooperation in Africa, an agency of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ntia Thompson, who later sought transfer to the Ministry of Budget and National Planning and Aaron Kaase of the Press Unit of the Police Service Commission had been denied their salaries and allowances since their reinstatement.
“As soon as Thompson who was sacked in December 2016 for reporting fraud totalling $229,000 was reinstated in July 2017, he was redeployed to the library just to frustrate him. The emotional setback resulting from that made him ask for transfer to another government office. As we speak, he has yet to be paid seven months’ salary, from the December 2016 to July 2017.
“And as for Kaase who got a court judgment reinstating him in November 2017 but was not called back until March 2018, he has not been paid for three years now, since he was suspended without pay in May 2015 for reporting that the Chairman of the Commission, Mike Okiro, was involved in fraud of N275.5m in the Commission,” Onumah stated.
He said besides being denied his entitlements, Kaase was also being harassed with a trumped-up charge of visa scam wherein he was being falsely accused of collecting N1 million to procure US visa for somebody but failed to do so.
“Clearly, this allegation was manufactured by those whom he had accused of fraud so as to intimidate and shut him up,” Onumah said.
He added that although two different courts had discharged and acquitted Kaase for lack of diligent prosecution and lack of evidence to prosecute the case, respectively, his tormentors had refused to back off.
He said if the unfortunate development was not quickly checked, whistleblowing would suffer, and that would badly affect the anti-corruption war.
He said to save the situation, the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, should rescue the patriotic Nigerians and save the lofty policy.
The organisation also urged the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to expedite action on the allegations raised by the two whistleblowers.
