Borno governor urges FG to probe UAE’s findings on ‘Boko Haram sponsors’

Borno State Governor, Babagana Zulum, on Tuesday expressed delight over the conviction of some Nigerians in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for sponsoring Boko Haram activities.

In a statement issued by his media aide, Isa Gusau, the governor urged the Federal Government to follow up on the findings of the UAE authorities on the convicts.

A court in Abu Dhabi had last week upheld the conviction of six Nigerians for funding the terror group.

The convicts, according to the court, used Bureau De Change operations to send $782,000 to Boko Haram in 17 separate transfers from Dubai to Nigeria between 2015 and 2016.

But the families of the convicted men had raised questions on the UAE court judgment, insisting that the convicts were innocent of the charges.

READ ALSO: Senate to investigate conviction of six Nigerians for funding Boko Haram in UAE

The statement read: “Governor Babagana Umara Zulum is glad that for the first time in 11 years, there appears to be headway on tracking some alleged financiers of Boko Haram’s activities which had left thousands of citizens killed, millions displaced and private property and public institutions worth $9 billion destroyed in Borno, other parts of the North-East, and Nigeria at large.

“Zulum urged the Federal Government to consider setting up a multi-stakeholder team with trusted representatives from the Federal Ministries of Justice, Foreign Affairs, the Nigerian Intelligence Agency, the Defence Intelligence Agency, the Multinational Joint Task Force in the Lake Chad, and the ECOWAS Intergovernmental Action Group on Terrorism Financing in West Africa, to assiduously work with the UAE government to look into the issues raised by families crying foul play, and more importantly, to follow-up on the findings by the UAE with the hope of using the intelligence, if authenticated, to expand search on other Boko Haram sponsors that may be helping in similar ways.”

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