FG recovered 40 new SUVs from ex-Perm Sec – Lai Mohammed

The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, on Thursday, disclosed that the current anti- graft war led to the recovery of 40 brand new SUVs from a former Permanent Secretary.

In a statement he personally signed, the Minister who did not disclose the name of the Permanent Secretary, said the latter appropriated the vehicle to himself after leaving office.

According to Mohammed, “The strategy has proven so effective and that it has led to, among others, the recovery of 40 brand new SUVs and other vehicles from one former Permanent Secretary who single-handedly appropriated the vehicles to himself when he left office.”

The Minister said the federal government had perfected some other measures to strengthen the anti-corruption fight.

He listed the measures to include, the establishment of the Presidential Committee on Asset Recovery and the Asset Tracing Committee; the setting up of an Asset Register, and the Whistle Blower Policy.

Mohammed disclosed that the government was working through the Code of Conduct Bureau to start a trial run of electronic asset declaration which will facilitate compliance and also to search and retrieve data on the assets of public officers in the in coming year.

”Once perfected, the data will be shared with government periodically, if possible as regularly as government receives data on inflation and unemployment trends, to indicate trends in corruption and influence government measures to correct the situation before it gets out of hand as we have now,” he added.