FG discloses identity of 45 Northerners sponsoring Boko Haram

The list of 45 suspects arrested by the Nigerian government for allegedly funding Boko Haram insurgency in the country has been obtained by SaharaReporters.

SaharaReporters had earlier reported that the United Arab Emirates named and prosecuted 38 alleged sponsors of terrorism, which include six Nigerians.

Presidential spokesman, Garba Shehu, had in March 2021 said the Nigerian Government arrested 400 Bureaux De Change operators for allegedly funding Boko Haram insurgency in the country, saying the suspects were transferring money to the terrorists.

Nigerians have since been asking the President Muhammadu Buhari-led government to disclose the identities of the suspects, a request the government has repeatedly ignored.

Shehu’s colleague, Femi Adesina on Tuesday said the Buhari-led government is not interested in naming and shaming the financiers of terrorism but in their prosecution.

On Wednesday, Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN), who is in the United States as part of Buhari’s entourage to the United Nations General Assembly, also said the government would not name and shame the suspected financiers of terrorism before they are tried and convicted.

“Naming and shaming of suspects is not embarked upon as a policy by the federal government out of sheer respect the constitutional rights of Nigerians relating to presumption of innocence,” Malami had said in a statement.

“It is a product of constitutionalism and the law. It is rooted in the law and the names of the suspects will accordingly be made public at the point of judicial arraignment while the.  Trials are judicial processes and not about media sensations.

“Naming and shaming in the Nigerian context must be rooted in constitutionalism. We must strike a balance between constitutional presumption of innocence and evidential proof of reasonable ground for suspicion in making disclosures associated with terrorism funding and financing.

“Where reasonable grounds are established, suspects must be naturally taken to court at which point their identity must be disclosed and the naming becomes apparent.

“Shaming, on the other hand, is the product of conviction at which point the public is equally judicially put on notice. In essence, naming and shaming within the context of Nigerian law are judicial functions which commence with arraignment and terminate with convictions.”

Though the Minister claimed 285 suspects have been charged before the Federal High Court, sources told SaharaReporters that only over 40 are being prosecuted by the government before the court based “on prima facie cases of terrorism.”

They include Saidu Ahmed, Ibrahim Sani Bello, Mustapha Musa Adamu, Abubakar Sadiq Garba, Hussein Adamu, Muhammed Sani Adam, Abdulrahman Ibrahim, Ghazali Yusuf, Yusuf Ali Yusuf, Abubakar Adamu Yellow, Zahuraddeen Bashir, Haruna Garba Garo, Ibrahim Aliyu Usman, Hassan Idris, Musa Emma, Alhashim Mohammed Almashim, Baba Samaila, Bulama Tahir, Abubakar Ali, Mohammed Ambare, Danlami Hassan Nadabo, Danladi Talle Inuwa, Bashir Ali, Mansur Muhammad Usaman.

Others are Musa Tasiu Ya’u, Auwalu Ali Alhassan, Sadi Saidu Abdullahi, Suraj Adamu, Muhammed Auwalu, Ismaila Abdullaziz Mohammed, Munzali Ashiru Gambo, Yazid Muhammad Usman, Nabil Zakari, Gambo Auwalu, Muhammed Abba, Bashir Idris Shuaibu, Mohammed Yahaya, Auwalu Ibrahim, Abdullahi Umar Usman, Dahiru Umar Mohammed, Abdullahi Mohammed, Abubakar Yahaya, Hussaini Lawali Idrisu, Ladann Ibrahim, Nurudeen Gani Aliyu.

SaharaReporters had in April, reported how over 400 persons were arrested by security agencies during a nationwide crackdown on the suspected financiers and collaborations.

They were reportedly arrested in an operation being coordinated by the Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA), and in collaboration with the Department of State Services (DSS), Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU), and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

The operation was said to have been approved by President Muhammadu Buhari in 2020.

They were reportedly being kept in military and DSS facilities in Abuja and other places.

Confirming the report a few days after, Malami said the Nigerian government embarked on “a wider and far-reaching investigations” into terrorism financing after the conviction of Boko Haram financiers in the United Arab Emirates.