The Federal Government has been asked to name sponsors of terrorism in Nigeria if they have found uncovered.
The National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Mr. Dele Ologunagba, made the call in reaction to the Federal Government’s claim.
But Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice Abubakar Malami has said the sponsors would be revealed in court.
The AGF’s spokesman, Dr. Umar Gwandu, on Thursday said the identities of the suspects would be revealed in court.
Ologunagba said the Buhari regime had no moral right to boast about fighting corruption when Transparency International had already revealed that Nigeria was the second most corrupt country in West Africa.
The PDP spokesman said it was unfortunate that the APC could still be playing games with the identities of terror sponsors despite the fact that thousands were being killed on Buhari’s watch.
“Over 10, 398 Nigerians were killed in 2021 alone and they are still telling us about plans to reveal terror sponsors,” he said.
This would not be the first time that the Buhari regime would claim to have identified terror sponsors.
In the United Arab Emirates in 2020, six Boko Haram sponsors were convicted for funding terrorism through money transfers from Dubai to Nigeria. Two of the convicts were jailed for life while others were sentenced between four to 10 years.
Through the bureau de change they operated, they wired a total of $782,000 to the terror group in 2019. According to UAE court proceedings, one of the facilitators of the transaction identified simply as ‘Alhaji Sa’idu,’ is allegedly based in Nigeria and responsible for facilitating the group’s access to funds from its sponsors.” Another, “Alhaji Ashiru,” is tagged as a “Nigerian government official and senior undercover Boko Haram member” who facilitates the transfer of misappropriated public funds to the group.”
In May 2021, the Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, said 400 bureau de change operators who were Boko Haram sponsors had been arrested. Malami stated that they were arrested during an operation coordinated by the Defence Intelligence Agency, the Department of State Services, NFIU and the Central Bank of Nigeria.
He further revealed that the suspects were arrested northern states except Lagos. He said they were apprehended in Kano, Borno, Abuja, Lagos, Sokoto, Adamawa, Kaduna, and Zamfara during the operation that was sanctioned by President Buhari. The AGF promised that they would be prosecuted once the strike by court workers was called off.
However, Malami has failed to provide an update on the prosecution till date. Even when human rights lawyer, Femi Falana (SAN), who wrote a Freedom of Information request seeking an update on the case, the AGF’s office still failed to provide an update.
“One of the steps associated with the process of prosecution is the arraignment of suspects in court. It is, therefore, logical that identities of such suspects will naturally be made known when their pleas are taken in court. Their identities will be made known at that point,” Gwandu said.
