HURIWA: Failure to Reveal Identities of Terrorism Financiers is Cover-up

Chuks Okocha in Abuja

Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), has called on the Attorney General of the Federation and minister of Justice, Mr. Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, to make full disclosures to Nigerians regarding the identities and particulars of offences of the daredevil financiers of terrorism in the country.

The group, however, faulted the position of the government that it wouldn’t name and shame the financiers so as not to jeopardise investigation.
HURIWA said the failure of the current government to disclose the identities of the financiers of the terrorists whose activities have led to the killings of over 50,000 citizens over the past decade, amounted to cover-up on the part of the current administration going by the fact that investigation have gone on for far too long, which led to the identification of the suspected financiers of terrorism in Nigeria.

The Rights group wondered the kind of investigation that would go on infinitum which offends global best practices, adding that in advanced democracies, theyautomatically publish and authorise the release of information  on the particulars of offences and the identities of financiers of terrorism as soon as these information is generated and therefore wonders whether Nigeria is an island.

HURIWA said it was worried that Tinubu’s administration was adopting the same archaic, shady and ludicrous pattern adopted by its predecessor, which wasted over three years without publishing the names of the financiers of terrorists in Nigeria, even when in 2022, the United Arab Emirates had convicted some of those financiers of terrorism in Nigeria, when the Dubai law enforcement Agency intercepted the Nigerian sponsors of the boko haram terrorists as they arrived from Nigeria.

HURIWA also said even the USA published the full identities of the aforementioned financiers of terrorism in Nigeria convicted in Dubai.
According to the national coordinator of the group, Onwubiko, the minister of justice got it wrong for failing to give Nigerians the identities of the suspected financiers of terrorism because as far back as 2022, six Nigerians were publicly sanctioned by the United States for raising funds in United Arab Emirates for the terrorist group, Boko Haram, where they were convicted.

Besides, HURIWA maintained that Freedom of Information Act was a law of the federation, which obliged the government to provide relevant details of the identities of outlaws and terrorist masterminds.