By Doyin Ojosipe

A whistle-blower, Murtala Aliyu Ibrahim, has won the 2nd Gani Fawehinmi Impact and Integrity Awards (GFIIA) 2019, for the whistleblowing category.

The event which took place in Lagos on Tuesday December 10, 2019, was sponsored by Human and Environmental Development Agenda (HEDA) Resource Centre.

Last year’s edition of the award was won by Omoyele Sowore, the publisher of Sahara Reporters who is being detained by the Nigerian government and facing trial for calling for protests to demand good governance.

Like other whistle-blowers, Ibrahim, an internal auditor at the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN) is facing series of reprisals for exposing fraudulent practices at the Bank.

His ordeal started in 2016 when he petitioned the supervising minister of the bank, Babatunde Fashola, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and State Security Service (SSS), on the alleged corruption taking place at the FMBN.

He had refused to assent to the Bank’s 2016 half-year report which the management engineered to show the Bank was making profit when indeed the reverse was the case. He also raised the flag on the allocation of a whopping sum of N2.23 billion for the rehabilitation of Mamman Kontagora House.

On May 8, 2017, the Bank terminated his appointment without stating reasons for its decision.
Ibrahim was recalled in December 2018 after a ministerial recommendation, but he was sacked for the second time in September 2019.

Ibrahim is one of the whistleblowers supported by the African Centre for Media and Information Literacy (AFRICMIL).

AFRICMIL is currently working on a project tagged Corruption Anonymous, funded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

The project is dedicated to the promotion of the whistleblowing policy of the Nigerian government and advocates for honest implementation of the policy and effective protection for whistleblowers.

Ibrahim’s petition is presently before the Committee on Public petitions in the House of Representatives.