An Abu Dhabi Federal Court of Appeal in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has convicted six Nigerians for the crime of financing Boko Haram insurgents.
The conviction was upheld by the appellate court after they lost an earlier appeal at a lower court.
According to reports on Monday, Surajo Abubakar Muhammad and Saleh Yusuf Adamu were sentenced to life imprisonment.
The rest – Ibrahim Ali Alhassan, AbdurRahman Ado Musa, Bashir Ali Yusuf and Muhammad Ibrahim Isa, got 10 years imprisonment each.
Court documents show that between 2015 and 2016, the convicts were allegedly involved in cash transfers totaling $782,000 to Boko Haram insurgents.
The act is in violation of Article 29, Clause 3 of UAE’s Federal Anti-Terrorism Law No 7 of 2017.
The National Security Bureau said investigation of the Nigerians “confirmed their involvement and membership of the Boko Haram”.
They were arrested between April 16 and 17, 2017, and their homes searched according to the search warrant issued by the National Security Prosecution office dated April 16, 2017.
Abubakar and Adamu were charged for joining Boko Haram knowingly.
This violates Article 22/2 of UAE’s Federal Anti-Terrorism Law No 7 of 2017 punishable by death or life imprisonment.
Alhassan, Musa, Yusuf and Isa were charged with assisting the sect knowingly.
The crime, under Article 31, Clause 1 of the same law, is punishable by life imprisonment or at least five years in jail.
Most of the dealings were saidto have been facilitated by two undercover Boko Haram agents based in Nigeria. One of them is “Alhaji Sa’idu”.
The other ,“Alhaji Ashiru” was described as “a Nigerian government official”.
He also allegedly funneled misappropriated public funds to terrorists.
Sa’idu’s modus operandi is using nameless Arab persons on a visit to Dubai from Turkey to hand over US Dollars to one of the convicts, who would remit Naira equivalent to the agent.
Families of the convicts say they were “framed up”, insisting that their bureau de change business in the UAE was legitimate.
Reacting to the conviction, Mrs. Chairman of Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, Abike Dabiri-Erewa, said the convicts could approach the Supreme Court if they wish.
She warned Nigerians all around the world to desist from crime and criminality.