Nigeria’s Chief of Defence Staff, Christopher Musa, says the process of identifying and prosecuting terrorism financiers in Nigeria is ongoing.
Mr Musa spoke on Thursday night when he appeared as a guest on Channels TV’s Politics Today.
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The military chief stressed that naming the financiers had been delayed because the matter involves legal complexities.
“I think the process (of naming the financiers) is on. (The delay was) because it has to do with a lot of legal issues and because again, it has to do with international connections.
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“Some of them have funds coming from outside, we cannot do anything from within. We know them,” he said, adding that other financiers are within Nigeria.
Continuing, Mr Musa said: “The local ones, what they do normally is to employ a few individuals, provide motorcycles for them and those are remitting funds daily into some accounts.
“So, it’s being tracked. They try to circulate those monies and that’s why we need to be able to track the funds.”
Applause for NFIU
Mr Musa hailed the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) for its role in exposing financial links to terrorism.
“The NFIU has been doing so much (to track terrorism funds). Apart from the intelligence setup, the financial links are also being followed through and through, and arrests have been made.
“I can assure you the Attorney-General of the Federation (Lateef Fagbemi), the National Security Adviser (Nuhu Ribadu), are all working seriously to ensure that we address those issues,” he said.
The military chief also said the State Security Services, the National Intelligence Agency, and other security agencies were working to track Nigerian politicians financing insecurity for personal gains.
“You know criminals work together. They synergise their efforts together, both the bandits and terrorists, because they have a common goal: they want to make money, they want to make sure communities are suffering for whatever reason,” he stated.
The Channels TV programme anchor, Seun Okinbaloye, asked Mr Musa if political actors behind terrorism in Nigeria have been identified.
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“Work is in progress,” he responded.
Terrorism in Nigeria
Nigeria has been battling terrorist attacks across regions, especially in the North-eastern and North-western parts of the country.
While the North-western states, particularly Zamfara, have been plagued by a series of terrorist attacks by hoodlums, locally referred to as bandits, the North-east is battling Boko Haram attacks, which have resulted in the killing of hundreds and the displacement of thousands of residents.
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