The Federal Government has said it has successfully blocked terrorism financing in Nigeria, the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, has said.
Malami told the News Agency of Nigeria in New York that the federal government had also succeeded in identifying and detaining “high profile individuals” responsible for funding terrorists’ activities in the country.
The AGF had announced in May that the Nigerian government was about to begin the prosecution of about 400 suspected Boko Haram financiers and was profiling some high-profile Nigerians strongly suspected to be financing terrorism for prosecution.
The delay in their prosecution and unveiling of the suspects have been criticised in certain quarters, but Malami has assured that the federal government is determined to take stringent measures to counter insurgency in the country.
“We have succeeded in identifying those that are responsible for funding terrorists. We have also blocked the leakages associated with the funding and then embarking on an aggressive investigation that is indeed impacting positively in terms of the fight against terrorism.
“But then, the truth of the matter is that investigation is ongoing, it is advancing and for the purpose of investigation, I wouldn’t like to be pre-emptive in terms of making disclosures that would have the effect of undermining the successes we are recording as far as investigation is concerned.
“But one thing I can tell you for sure is that whatever we do in terms of detention and in terms of arrest is indeed backed by judicial process. We have obtained a legitimate court order taking into consideration what we have presented before the court; the court eventually exercised its discretion in terms of granting orders that we can have them in custody.
The AGF continued “This is pending the conclusion of the investigation, which in essence is indeed deeply taking place and we are making a lot of successes and recording a lot of progress in the direction of the investigation.”
The chief law officer of Nigeria, however, said the issue of terrorism financing was a work in progress and would not like to be pre-emptive in terms of investigation.
The minister recalled that Nigeria had recovered 322 million dollars from Switzerland in 2017 and 311 million dollars from the U.S. in 2020.
He said Nigeria was looking at the possibility of recovering a further 200 million pounds from the U.S. aside from other associated assets being pursued in some other countries.
