The Nigeria Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) has confirmed that the list of nine Nigerians and six Bureau de change outfits recently revealed to the public were used to finance terrorism in Nigeria.
The Punch newspaper had published the list on Wednesday but many Nigerians including controversial Islamic scholar, Sheik Gunmi described the list as not being true.
However, in a briefing to journalists on Thursday in Abuja, the spokesman of the NFIU, Sani Tukur affirmed that the list was authentic and that the duo of President Bola Tinubu and the Attorney General of the Federation, Mr. Lateef Fagbemi were properly briefed before the list was made public.
Tukur said, “I just want to provide an update and context to the issue of designation of terrorism financiers. It wasn’t actually a statement from the NFIU but a release by the Nigerian Sanctions Committee. However, the NFIU is the secretariat of the committee, hence the email that was used by the committee to send to its subscriber
“It is a requirement that once analysis is done and persons and entities are designated as financiers, such is published on the website of the Sanctions Committee immediately. Once it is so published, all subscribers will receive it in their email boxes. It so happens that only Sanusi from The PUNCH has subscribed to the list, and that is why he received it immediately after it was published.
“The procedure for the designation is such that once persons are determined to be financiers, the list is sent to the President for approval through the Attorney General of the Federation.
“Before persons and entities are so designated, a meeting of the National Sanctions Committee is held at the Attorney General’s office and decisions taken there
“The NFIU email was used to send to subscribers because the NFIU is the secretariat of the Sanctions Committee. The recent designation information was sent to over 9,000 recipients, of which Sanusi happens to be the only journalist who received it due to his subscription status.”
The list of the terrorism financiers are:
1. Tukur Mamu
2. Yusuf Ghazali
3. Muhammad Sani
4. Abubakar Muhamma
5. Sallamudeen Hassan
6. Adamu Ishak
7. Hassana-Oyiza Isah
8. Abdulkareem Musa,
9. Umar Abdullahi
The BDCs and indicted companies include:
10. West and East Africa General Trading Company Limited
11. Settings Bureau De Change Limited
G. Side General Enterprises
13. Desert Exchange Ventures Limited
14. Eagle Square General Trading Company Limited
15. Alfa Exchange BDC
Recall that Tukur Mamu, the number one on the list was in March 2022 arrested in Cairo International Airport, Egypt on his way to board a plane to Saudi Arabia. Mamu was the chief negotiator between the terrorists that blew up a Kaduna bound train killing scores and abducting others.
Mamu had said: “I am on my way to Madina Saudi Arabia when they stopped me at Cairo Airport under the Nigerian Government order.
“Nothing was found in my possession. So I am sure the DSS officials are waiting for me at the Kano Airport, I don’t have anything to hide and like I said I am not afraid of them.” However, the Federal Government accused him of engaging in a transaction that saw him tranferring $200,000 to ISWAP terrorists.
Mamu is the publisher of Kaduna based Desert Herlad newspapers.