The Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission, Abdulrasheed Bawa, on Thursday, said Nigerians will know the
identities of terrorism financiers in the country at the right time.
He spoke as a guest on Channels Television’s ‘Politics
Today’ current affairs programme.
Bawa, who collapsed during an official function at the Aso
Rock Villa earlier on Thursday, also said he had seen his doctor and
“everything about me is okay, except for the fact that I’m a bit dehydrated and
I need to take a lot of water”.
The President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), had
on February 16, 2021, named 41-year-old Bawa as the fourth chairman of EFCC
following the corruption allegations levelled against embattled ex-acting EFCC
chair, Ibrahim Magu, and his subsequent suspension.
The EFCC was established in the early 2000s during the
administration of the then President Olusegun Obasanjo to combat economic and
financial crimes like advance fee fraud (419), money laundering, terrorism
financing and miscellaneous offences.
On Monday, the United Arab Emirates named and prosecuted six
Nigerians and 32 others for allegedly financing terrorism.
Nigerians on the UAE’s terrorism list include Abdurrahaman
Ado Musa, Salihu Yusuf Adamu, Bashir Ali Yusuf, Muhammed Ibrahim Isa, Ibrahim
Ali Alhassan and Surajo Abubakar Muhammad.
The Nigerians were said to have transferred up to $800,000
in favour of Boko Haram between 2015 and 2016.
The six persons were said to have been tried and sentenced
to at least 10 years in jail in the UAE.
Also in March 2021, presidential aide, Garba Shehu, had said
the Nigerian Government arrested 400 Bureau De Change operators for allegedly
funding Boko Haram insurgency in the country.
He had said the Nigerians were transferring money to the
sect from the United Arab Emirates.
Asked specifically on the television programme on Thursday
to reveal the people financing terror and unleashing mayhem on Nigerians in the
last 12 years, the EFCC chairman replied the interviewer, “If you are my
adviser, will you advise me to come on national television to tell the whole
world regarding matters of sensitive national security issue? Certainly, not.
But what I want to assure is the fact that we are working tirelessly with other
sister agencies to ensure that this country is free of terrorism.”
When further asked whether it was appropriate for the
government to conceal the identities of terror financiers whose activities have
led to the killing of thousands of innocent lives, Bawa said, “Of course,
transparency is one of the bedrock(s) of this administration, of course, I am
not a spokesman for this administration, but I believe that at the right time
Nigerians will get to know those that are financing terrorism in this country
and beyond as well.
“These are issues that are beyond the borders of this
country and of course we are working tirelessly with our partners overseas as
well as other sister agencies at home. We are working, it is not something we
should come out to say that these are the modus operandi that we are adopting.”
Terrorism financing has become a concerning issue in Nigeria
in the last few years as some unnamed politicians have been fingered of complicity
with the marauders.
This newspaper had earlier reported that a former Navy
Commodore, Kunle Olawunmi, said that Boko Haram terrorists mentioned names of
current governors, senators and Aso Rock officials as sponsors during
interrogation but the President has demonstrated an unwillingness to go after
the high-profile politicians for reasons best known to him.
Last September, a former deputy governor of the Central Bank
of Nigeria, Obadiah Mailafia, also claimed that a serving northern governor was
a Boko Haram leader and moneybag.
For over a decade, the Boko Haram terror group had killed
thousands of Nigerians in the North-East, especially in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa
States. The Nigerian Army and the Presidency had at several times claimed the
group had been ‘technically defeated’ and ‘weakened’ but the bloodthirsty
terrorist faction continues to strike with daring effrontery and crude
savagery.
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