Time To Reveal Terrorism Financiers, Group Tells FG

An advocacy group, the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, HURIWA, has called on the Federal Government to reveal those financing terrorism in the country.

The group specifically called on the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi, to make full disclosures to Nigerians regarding the identities and particulars of the financiers of terrorism in the country.

The Rights group faulted the position of the government that it would not name and shame the financiers so as not to jeopardise investigation, in a statement it issued on Sunday signed by its National Coordinator Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko.

HURIWA said the failure of the current government to disclose the “identities of the financiers of the terrorists whose activities have led to the killings of over 50,000 citizens over the past decade, amounted to cover-up on the part of the current administration going by the fact that investigation have gone on for far too long which led to the identification of the suspected financiers of terrorism in Nigeria.”

The Rights group wondered what kind of investigation the government is carrying out that will go on ad infinitum which it said, “offends global best practices.”

The Rights group stated that advanced democracies automatically “publish and authorise the release of information on the particulars of offences and the identities of financiers of terrorism as soon as this information is generated and therefore wonders whether Nigeria is an island.”

HURIWA expressed worry that President Bola Tinubu’s administration is adopting the “same archaic, shady and ludicrous pattern adopted by its predecessor which wasted over three years without publishing the names of the financiers of terrorists in Nigeria even when in 2022 the United Arab Emirates had convicted some of them.”

HURIWA said the “Attorney General got it wrong for failing to give Nigerians the identities of the suspected financiers of terrorism because as far back as 2022, six Nigerians were publicly sanctioned by the United States for raising funds in the United Arab Emirates for the terrorist group, Boko Haram, where they were convicted.”

Besides, HURIWA maintained that Freedom of Information Act is a law of the Federation which obliges the government to provide relevant details of the identities of outlaws and terrorist masterminds.

HURIWA also asked “the National Security Adviser Mallam Nuhu Ribadu and the service chiefs including the inspector General of police and the Director General of the Department of State Services, to upgrade their joint operations against terrorists because of the emerging challenge posed by the alleged withdrawal of Niger Republic from the West African counter terrorism joint task force as a result of the sanctions imposed by ECOWAS following the military coup.”

HURIWA expressed “consternation that terrorists around the borders of Nigeria and Niger, have escalated attacks targeting both soft targets and military targets” just as the Rights group cited the report that at the weekend, suspected terrorists attacked Usmanu Danfodiyo University Community Sokoto, shot and killed one person, leaving others in critical condition.

Reports over the weekend said suspected gunmen who were in numbers stormed Dundayen Bakin Gulbi village 600 metres away from the University main campus shooting sporadically which made communities within and outside institutions to scamper for their precious lives.

HURIWA also said the suspected Boko Haram insurgents attack on the convoy of Yobe State Governor Mai Mala Buni along Maiduguri-Damaturu Road over the weekend, killing two policemen and injuring two others called for immediate action and new approach.

Reports over the weekend said the convoy came under fire after the governor attended the 24th convocation of the University of Maiduguri, Borno State.

HURIWA said the “upsurge in attacks by terrorists is a demonstration of what, we in our organisation, have been saying to the security heads that they need to continuously work as one for the sake of defending the territorial integrity of the country and stop these incessant threats against our national security.”