Governor Babagana Umara Zulum of Borno is glad that for the first time in 11 years, there appears to be headway on tracking some alleged financiers of Boko Haram’s activities which has left thousands of citizens killed, millions displaced and private properties and public institutions worth billions of dollars destroyed in north-eastern Nigeria.
Zulum’s message, contained in a statement on Tuesday, by his spokesman, Malam Isa Gusau, was in reaction to a report of six Nigerians Convicted in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) over ‘Boko Haram Funding’.
An Abu Dhabi Appeal Court upheld the conviction of some Nigerians for allegedly supplying almost N300m to fund Boko Haram.
The convicts, according to the court, allegedly used bureau de change operations to send $782,000 to Boko Haram in 17 separate transfers from Dubai to Nigeria between 2015 and 2016.
Zulum advised the Federal Government to set up a multi-stakeholder team with trusted representatives from the Federal Ministries of Justice, Foreign Affairs, the National Intelligence Agency, NIA, the Defence Intelligence Agency, DIA, the Multinational Joint Task Force in the Lake Chad, and the ECOWAS Intergovernmental Action Group on Terrorism Financing in West Africa, GIABA, to assiduously work with the UAE Government to look into the issues as well as the concerned raised by families of the convicts over alleged foul play.
The governor also urged the government to follow-up on the findings by the UAE with the hope of using the intelligence, if authenticated, to expand search on other Boko Haram sponsors that may be helping in similar ways.
The Governor urged the people of Borno to sustain prayers for God to expose all sponsors of Boko Haram and anyone who knowingly benefits from the crisis at the expense of peace in the State.
The 22nd report of the United Nations Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team had identified charitable donations, extortion, smuggling and ransom remittances from kidnapping as some of the ways through which Boko Haram raises funds.
