Borno State Governor, Babagana Zulum, has tasked the Federal Government with further investigating the conviction of some Nigerians for sponsoring terrorist sect, Boko Haram.
In a statement issued on Tuesday by his spokesman, Malam Isa Gusau, the governor expressed delight in what he described as progress in the efforts to curb the activities of the notorious group that had terrorized his state as well as other parts of the country since 2009.
In the statement titled, ‘Zulum hails UAE on ‘Boko Haram sponsors’, asks FG to deploy a multi-stakeholder team to follow up, expand searchlight,’ Zulum called for an adoption of the tactics employed by the UAE to uncover the convicts.
He, however, recognized claims by family members of the convicts crying foul play in prosection process.
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The statement read in part, “Governor Babagana Umara Zulum 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 property and public institutions worth 9 billion dollars destroyed in Borno, other parts of the northeast and Nigeria at large.
“Zulum urged the Federal Government to consider setting up a multi-stakeholder team with trusted representatives from the Federal Ministries of Justice, Foreign Affairs, the Nigerian 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, to assiduously work with the UAE Government to look into the issues raised by families crying foul play, and more importantly, 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.”
It was earlier reported that an Abu Dhabi appeal court upheld the conviction of some Nigerians for supplying almost N300m to fund Boko Haram.
The convicts, according to the court, used bureau de change operations to send $782,000 to Boko Haram in 17 separate transfers from Dubai to Nigeria between 2015 and 2016.
