BOKO HARAM FUNDING: 6 NIGERIANS IN DUBAI ARRESTED, CONVICTED AS SPONSORS OF BOKO HARAM
NEWS - Posted on: 9th Nov. 2020 at 2:12PM
Daily Trust has claimed an exclusive report on arrested sponsors of Boko Haram sponsors arrested and convicted by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in 2019.
The issue of finding the sponsors of Boko Haram has been in the front burner for over 10 years now and Nigerians have wondered if the Federal Government, the Army and the NIA are doing anything about it at all. In response to a query by concerned citizens, the Nigeria Army once said that it is not in its place to disclose the sponsors of the Islamic terrorist organization, Boko Haram. With this report, names have been identified, though outside the shores of the country, but Nigeria’s Minister of Justice, Mallam Malami has confirmed that Nigeria is aware of the case.
According to the reports by Daily Trust, “Two of the convicts, Surajo Abubakar Muhammad and Saleh Yusuf Adamu were sentenced to life imprisonment while the remaining four, Ibrahim Ali Alhassan, AbdurRahman Ado Musa, Bashir Ali Yusuf and Muhammad Ibrahim Isa were handed ten-year imprisonment respectively.”
The report as shown in the court judgment reveals that the convicts were moving funds to Boko Haram to the tune of USD782, 000.00 between 2015 and 2016. However, the families of the convicted denied this, saying they were “framed”, that these men had been in legitimate Bureau De Change business in the UAE before their arrest. They had filed an appeal but lost it at the appellate court of the UAE. The families had also sought the intervention of the Nigerian government through the ministry of Foreign Affairs to no avail.
Court documents show that “The accused were charged with funding a terror group (Boko Haram) by facilitating transfers of money from Dubai to Nigeria for alleged terror operations,” a crime under the anti-terrorism law, Article 29, Clause 3 of UAE’s Federal Law No 7 of 2017. They also reveal that warrants of arrest were issued from the office of the National Security Bureau, as the Bureau could confirm that the six convicted Nigerians were involved and are members of Boko Haram” terror group in Nigeria and that they were transferring money to the group’s leaders. They were arrested on April 16 and 17, 2017, and their homes were searched.
Surajo Abubakar Muhammad and Saleh Yusuf Adamu who were sentenced to Life Imprisonment were confirmed to have knowingly joined the terrorist organization while Ibrahim Ali Alhassan, AbdurRahman Ado Musa, Bashir Ali Yusuf and Muhammad Ibrahim Isa were found to have knowingly assisted Boko Haram in one way or the other, a crime punishable by life imprisonment or jail for not less than five years under the UAE law under Article 31, Clause 1.
It was gathered that two undercover Boko Haram, who served as Couriers, were part of the funding activities. One of them simply known as Alhaji Sa’idu, “would arrange an unidentified or vaguely identified Arab person on a visit to Dubai from Turkey to hand over an amount of money in US Dollars to one of the convicts who would, in turn, advise his Nigerian-based business partners to hand over the Naira equivalent of the amount to him (Alhaji Sa’idu)”.
The other undercover agent fingered in some of the funding activities is one Alhaji Ashiru, who is alleged to be “a Nigerian government official” and member of Boko Haram. He is said to be one “who facilitated the transfer of misappropriated public funds to the group.”
These undercover Boko Haram are said to be now at large. When the Minister of Justice and the AGF, Abubakar Malami was contacted, he said
“Nigerian government has written firstly for copies of the proceedings, which will give us the opportunity to see whether justice was done or not. And on whether they have committed the crime, we requested to know who and who are involved so that the Nigerian government will know what to do next…We are working on both the issues that they did not receive a fair hearing and that they were alleged to have supported Boko Haram activities.”
Malami also said that “Since the relationship involves issues of money between Nigeria and UAE, the Nigerian government has equally instructed the existing agencies of government to embark on an investigation on that and we have gone far.
“We await further intelligence from the UAE, which has relevance to the conviction and trial in order to do what we can as a follow-up to take the next line of action,”
Daily Trust has claimed an exclusive report on arrested sponsors of Boko Haram sponsors arrested and convicted by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in 2019.The issue of finding the sponsors of Boko Haram has been in the front burner for over 10 years now and Nigerians have wondered if the Federal Government, the Army and the NIA are doing anything about it at all. In response to a query by concerned citizens, the Nigeria Army once said that it is not in its place to disclose the sponsors of the Islamic terrorist organization, Boko Haram. With this report, names have been identified, though outside the shores of the country, but Nigeria’s Minister of Justice, Mallam Malami has confirmed that Nigeria is aware of the case.
According to the reports by Daily Trust, “Two of the convicts, Surajo Abubakar Muhammad and Saleh Yusuf Adamu were sentenced to life imprisonment while the remaining four, Ibrahim Ali Alhassan, AbdurRahman Ado Musa, Bashir Ali Yusuf and Muhammad Ibrahim Isa were handed ten-year imprisonment respectively.”
The report as shown in the court judgment reveals that the convicts were moving funds to Boko Haram to the tune of USD782, 000.00 between 2015 and 2016. However, the families of the convicted denied this, saying they were “framed”, that these men had been in legitimate Bureau De Change business in the UAE before their arrest. They had filed an appeal but lost it at the appellate court of the UAE. The families had also sought the intervention of the Nigerian government through the ministry of Foreign Affairs to no avail.
Court documents show that “The accused were charged with funding a terror group (Boko Haram) by facilitating transfers of money from Dubai to Nigeria for alleged terror operations,” a crime under the anti-terrorism law, Article 29, Clause 3 of UAE’s Federal Law No 7 of 2017. They also reveal that warrants of arrest were issued from the office of the National Security Bureau, as the Bureau could confirm that the six convicted Nigerians were involved and are members of Boko Haram” terror group in Nigeria and that they were transferring money to the group’s leaders. They were arrested on April 16 and 17, 2017, and their homes were searched.
Surajo Abubakar Muhammad and Saleh Yusuf Adamu who were sentenced to Life Imprisonment were confirmed to have knowingly joined the terrorist organization while Ibrahim Ali Alhassan, AbdurRahman Ado Musa, Bashir Ali Yusuf and Muhammad Ibrahim Isa were found to have knowingly assisted Boko Haram in one way or the other, a crime punishable by life imprisonment or jail for not less than five years under the UAE law under Article 31, Clause 1.
It was gathered that two undercover Boko Haram, who served as Couriers, were part of the funding activities. One of them simply known as Alhaji Sa’idu, “would arrange an unidentified or vaguely identified Arab person on a visit to Dubai from Turkey to hand over an amount of money in US Dollars to one of the convicts who would, in turn, advise his Nigerian-based business partners to hand over the Naira equivalent of the amount to him (Alhaji Sa’idu)”.
The other undercover agent fingered in some of the funding activities is one Alhaji Ashiru, who is alleged to be “a Nigerian government official” and member of Boko Haram. He is said to be one “who facilitated the transfer of misappropriated public funds to the group.”
These undercover Boko Haram are said to be now at large. When the Minister of Justice and the AGF, Abubakar Malami was contacted, he said
“Nigerian government has written firstly for copies of the proceedings, which will give us the opportunity to see whether justice was done or not. And on whether they have committed the crime, we requested to know who and who are involved so that the Nigerian government will know what to do next…We are working on both the issues that they did not receive a fair hearing and that they were alleged to have supported Boko Haram activities.”
Malami also said that “Since the relationship involves issues of money between Nigeria and UAE, the Nigerian government has equally instructed the existing agencies of government to embark on an investigation on that and we have gone far.
“We await further intelligence from the UAE, which has relevance to the conviction and trial in order to do what we can as a follow-up to take the next line of action,”
Posted by: Emdee David
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