Major General Danjuma Ali-Keffi intended his write up as a petition to President Bola Tinubu to investigate his “arrest, detention and compulsory retirement” from the Nigerian Army. But it turned out to be an unintended uncovering of the involvement of “senior government officials, a banker and military top brass” in terrorism and banditry financing. “A syndicate which had an extensive network in the country as well as being affiliated to international criminal networks was at the centre of moving finances for terrorism and other criminal activities,” the army general said.
General Keffi said he presided over a presidential board of inquiry (BoI) that investigated a connection between illegal petroleum products smuggling and mining, terrorism and banditry for six weeks between January and February 2020. The probe was ordered by President Muhammadu Buhari. One of its findings, he revealed, was that “some of the individuals involved in terrorism financing and also procurement and movement of arms and ammunition had links with the military.” The inquiry, according to him, discovered that “terrorism and insurgency… was a criminal enterprise, largely undertaken with profit rather than any ideology as the primary motive.” Their conclusion? “We, at the BoI, arrived at the obvious conclusion that progress cannot be achieved except the financiers, collaborators, supporters and the leadership of the terrorists and insurgent groups are identified and their networks dismantled.”
When Ali-Keffi was named to the board of inquiry he was already the General Officer Commanding (GOC) One Division of the Nigerian Army based in Kaduna. He worked with officers from the Directorate of Security Service (DSS), Nigerian Intelligence Agency (NIA), Nigerian Customs and Immigrations Service (NCIS) and others. Their supervisor was the office of the National Security Advisor (NSA). Incidentally, it was here Ali-Keffi’s tribulations started. The exposure of the military’s collusion in crime, specially laundering of funds meant for troops, didn’t go down well with some “oga at the top.” Ali-Keffi stated that “trouble started” when the task force became “a victim of unfair attacks” and was starved of funding. According to him, “some powerful persons in and outside government as well as from the military were uncomfortable with the task force, specifically my humble myself as commander.”
The death of Chief of Army Staff Lt.-Gen. Ibrahim Attahiru in a plane crash, Keffi said, was the last nail on the board’s coffin as the next COAS removed him as GOC of One Division. The Presidency which had received the task force’s recommendations “subsequently became less helpful,” he said. Eventually, he was arrested, detained for 64 days “in solitary confinement” and then retired compulsorily. The crash of the COAS’s flight raised a strong suspicion of sabotage. The fact that the outcome of the investigation into the crash never saw the light of day added weight to the suspicion. Ali-Keffi who was GOC under Attahiru believed the crash was ‘not ordinary’.
The military hasn’t responded to Ali-Keffi’s claims and allegations and probably never will since the petition was private communication with the President. It may even dismiss them as the cry of a drowning man and leave it at that. However, the knowing public including the social media will make sure to keep the Ali-Keffi terrorblast on the front burner, so to speak. Not that there is anything entirely new in Ali-Keffi’s allegations. Everybody has come to know that Boko Haram’s insurgency, at its zenith, was a lucrative franchise that many officers in the military acquired and resold. As a business, the turn-over was high. That was why it was hard to ” neutralize”. So also the present kidnappings and banditry – franchises for sale! Those who trade in them enrich themselves to the corporate disadvantage of the Nigerian state. But they are being foolish. If the state dissolves in chaos, they also like everybody else will, will disappear!
Gen. Ali-Keffi and his BoI colleagues believed terrorism would end when it’s financiers were identified and punished. Wishful thinking. When Buhari was in office, he received a list of Nigerians in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) confirmed to have been funding Boko Haram and other terror groups. The list was quite handful. His government promised to prosecute them but up until the time he left office in May 2023, none of them appeared in court. But who knows, perhaps Tinubu will be sweetly different!
