Nigeria calls for stronger protection for corruption whistleblowers — Premium Times Nigeria
Representatives of civil society organizations and anti-corruption bodies at a meeting in Abuja, Nigeria, called for stronger legal protection for corruption whistleblowers. Participants said that people who report abuses risk persecution due to insufficient safeguards.
As Premium Times Nigeria reports, the discussion took place during a seminar organized by the Human and Environmental Development Agenda Resource Centre together with the Platform to Protect Whistleblowers in Africa. The event was attended by representatives of anti-corruption institutions, lawyers, media, civil society organizations and other stakeholders.
Whistleblower protection bill
Panel participants described reporting violations as one of the effective tools for exposing corruption and linked it to freedom of expression. They noted that Nigeria still lacks a separate law on whistleblower protection, while, according to them, relevant legal mechanisms are already in place in Ghana, Liberia and Senegal.
Nigeria's National Assembly is already considering a whistleblower protection bill. Seminar participants called for its adoption, as well as for stronger opportunities for anonymous reporting and witness protection.
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Tracking hidden assets
Another topic was the difficulty of tracing and recovering illicit assets. Participants mentioned complex offshore structures, shell companies, nominee directors, trusts, digital assets and real estate as instruments that can make it more difficult to identify the real owners of assets.
Representatives of the civil sector stressed that information from open sources can only serve as a basis for further work and requires verification through physical checks, expert assessment and proper documentation. They also proposed consolidating information on beneficial owners in a shared system and strengthening information exchange among the Corporate Affairs Commission, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission.
Abdullahi Shehu, former director-general of the Inter-Governmental Action Group against Money Laundering in West Africa, called for focusing not only on arrests and criminal prosecutions but also on preventing corruption, tracking illicit assets and recovering proceeds of corruption. He also advocated transparent management of recovered assets and closer international cooperation.
