Expose Sponsors of Terrorism, If You are Not Complicit, PDP Challenges APC, Presidency

*Malami says investigations ongoing, preemptive to disclose identities of financiers

Chuks Okocha

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday said the refusal of the Presidency to expose the names of sponsors of terrorism in Nigeria, vindicates its position that the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the present administration had been providing official cover for terrorists and bandits pillaging the nation.

In what seemed like a response to the challenge by the PDP, the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami, in faraway New York, fielded questions from journalists on the sidelines of the ongoing United Nations General Assembly. He maintained that the federal government had succeeded in identifying those responsible for terrorism financing, declaring that investigation was ongoing and would be preemptive to disclose the terror financiers at this time.

The PDP position was predicated on the declaration by the Buhari Presidency that it was not interested in making public, the names of six Nigerians reportedly sent to the federal government by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as sponsors of terrorism in the country.

The PDP in a statement by the National Publicity Secretary. Kola Ologbondiyan said the decision of the APC-led government to cover the identity of sponsors of mindless mass killings, maiming, rapping, kidnapping of the compatriots as well as the endless violent marauding of the communities under the APC watch, validates its stand that such individuals have connections with the APC.

The party said the, “unpatriotic stance by the Buhari Presidency raises serious national anxieties of high-level complicity in the administration and further explains the reported compromising of our security system in the escalated killings and acts of terrorism in the country in the last six years under the APC.”

According to the PDP, “Nigerians can see why the APC-led administration has failed to take decisive steps to tackle terrorism, why it prefers to negotiate with terrorists and even makes case for them, instead apprehending and prosecuting them, as witnessed in the beheading of rice farmers in Borno state.”

The PDP said it had always alerted of a connection between the APC and terrorists ravaging various parts of the nation and how the APC, as a party, had always failed to forcefully condemn acts of terrorism in the country.

The PDP added: “Nigerians can recall how the APC vehemently defended and still habours the Minister of Communication and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami, a self-confessed terrorism apologist, despite national outcry and demand for his sack.”

Also, it stated that the APC had failed to account for the bandits, thugs and hoodlums it imported from neighboring countries to unleash violence on Nigerians and muscle the 2019 elections.

“If the APC and its administration have nothing to cover, our party challenges them to immediately publish the names of the sponsors of terrorism given to it by the UAE, instead of this vexatious desperation to provide official cover for them,” the PDP stated.

However, in his response, Malami said: “In terms of terrorism financing, we have succeeded in identifying those responsible, we have broken the linkages associated with its funding and embarked on investigations that is impacting positively in the fight against terrorism.

“But the truth of the matter is that investigation is ongoing and it is advancing and for the purpose of the investigation I wouldn’t want to be preemptive in terms of making disclosures that would have effects in undermining the success we are recording as far as investigation is concerned.”

Responding to a question on assets recovery, he said, “We are building consensus in terms of driving resolutions, processes and procedures associated with assets recovery. So, while we are pursuing the recovery of the assets in their own rights, we are equally trying as much as possible to see what we can do in terms of building consensus around making the process of looted assets’ recovery easier, locally and internationally.

“In Washington DC, we are looking at the possibility of recovering further £2 billion and others. But that does not mean to say there are no other associated assets being pursued in some countries of the world, inclusive of Ireland and some other countries. We are pursuing a lot of assets and we are coordinator another meeting relating to a huge recovery in the UK associated with certain personalities that I wouldn’t like to disclose, taking into consideration the need not to be preemptive as far as our strategy is concerned.”