Top government officials are sponsors of terrorists – Olawunmi

A former Navy Commodore, Kunle Olawunmi, has revealed that Boko Haram terrorists disclosed names of current governors, senators, and Aso Rock officials as sponsors during interrogation.

The ex-Naval officer said this during a Channels Television programme on Wednesday.

According to Olawunmi, the Federal Government, led by President Muhammadu Buhari is aware of the alleged sponsors but has demonstrated an unwillingness to pursue the cases.

Speaking on Tuesday’s attack on Nigeria’s foremost military training institution, the Nigerian Defence Academy, Olawunmi condemned practices on the Campus that made it possible to compromise security.

Two military officers were killed and another kidnapped in Tuesday’s attack, and the NDA spokesman had on Tuesday said that the bandits had gained access to the heavily guarded premises by circumventing campus security.

As an example of a practice that adversely affects campus security, Olawunmi complained that the NDA was susceptible to compromise by malicious parties anytime it opened its doors for Friday’s Jumat prayers on campus.

He said, “In 2017, I carried out an investigation by the minister of defence that wanted me to check what was going on with the training and the security there (NDA). I remember I spent about a week in the NDA with the commandant and the staff, but something struck me: every Friday, the gate of NDA is thrown open and everybody has access to pray in the mosque.

“On Fridays, you are going to see the same thing happening across all military formations in the country…If you go to Defence Headquarters, I served at the Defence Headquarters as the Deputy Director, Defence Administration between 2015 and 2017, throughout my two years at the Defence Headquarters, I received visitors twice because of the strict security architecture there but every Friday, the gate of the Defence Headquarters is thrown wide open for everybody to come in and observe Jumat.

“That is the time the terrorists have the time to profile our security environment. It has always been the case. I have served the military intelligence for the past 35 years. Our problem is religion and socio-cultural.”

Furthermore, the Professor of Global Security Studies said he was a member of the Intelligence Brief at the Defence Headquarters during the leadership of the then Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Abayomi Olonisakin (retd).

He said he had told the then-CDS that the centre of gravity of the Boko Haram insurgency ravaging the North-East and spreading to other parts of Nigeria was the sponsors.

“I told General Olonisakin then that the centre of this problem cannot be solved the same way we solved the problem of the Niger Delta. The Niger Delta problem was solved during (Ex-President Umaru) Yar’adua basically by me and I told them that we can’t use that same template for Boko Haram.

“I told General Olonisakin to look at the centre of gravity of the problem. I was made a member of the committee in 2016-2017 including (Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Ibrahim) Attahiru that died.

“I told them that the centre of gravity of Boko Haram in Nigeria is the sponsors of the programme. It was beyond us because the job we needed to do was kinetic, but we cannot resolve issues of sponsors of Boko Haram that were in Buhari’s government that we know them. That was why we couldn’t pursue that aspect that could have resolved the issue because we need to arrest people.”

Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, had earlier in the year said the Nigerian Government arrested some Bureau De Change operators who were facilitating the transfer of money to Boko Haram terrorists.

Olawunmi said the government has not been able to prosecute the sponsors because it is allegedly partisan.

He said, “Recently, 400 people were gathered as sponsors of Boko Haram, why is it that the Buhari government has refused to try them? Why can’t this government bring them to trial if not that they are partisan and part of the charade that is going on?

“You remember this Boko Haram issue started in 2012 and I was in the military intelligence at that time. We arrested those people. My organisation conducted interrogation and they (suspects) mentioned names. I can’t come on air and start mentioning names of people that are presently in government that I know that the boys that we arrested mentioned. Some of them are governors now, some of them are in the Senate, some of them are in Aso Rock,” he said.

Olawunmi also said that the Department of State Services has information on terrorists, but they can’t do anything except by order of the Commander-In-Chief.

Recall that a former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Obadiah Mailafia, said in August 2020 that repentant terrorists revealed that a serving northern governor is a Boko Haram leader.