* Scores arrested in nationwide crackdown
Several persons have reportedly been arrested by security agents in a nationwide crackdown on suspected financiers of Boko Haram and other criminal gangs, believed to be a major breakthrough for Nigeria’s efforts in the ongoing war against insurgency.
This is coming five months after the jailing of six Nigerians in the United Arab Emirates over allegations of terrorism financing.
The ongoing inter-agency operation is being led by a top intelligence officer, with an army general leading a task team comprising military personnel and staff from the intelligence services.
Reports say the closely-guarded operation is being coordinated by Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA), in collaboration with the Department of State Services (DSS), Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
As part of the operation, billions of naira traced to businesses belonging to persons of interest have been blocked in banks in series of “post no debit” letters sent out to banks by the CBN and NFIU. The apex bank has also lately obtained court orders directing freezing of dozens of accounts flagged for suspicious transactions.
While officials expressed hope that the ongoing operation would be a “game-changer” in the lingering fight against Boko Haram insurgents and other criminal gangs, some analysts say the method may not provide the needed elixir as terrorists and bandits operate largely outside the financial system.
Reports quoting a security source say the operation started last year with massive gathering and analysis of financial intelligence and drawing uplink analysis, leading to initial marking of some 60 businesses and individuals.
An initial list of 957 suspects comprising bureau de change operators, gold miners and sellers, and other businessmen is being acted upon.
Already, about 400 persons are said to have been arrested in series of raids in Abuja, Kano, Borno, Lagos, Sokoto, Adamawa, Kaduna and Zamfara states.
In the Kano operation, traders at the foreign exchange open market in Wapa, Fagge Local Government Area, were reportedly picked up on March 9, 15 and 16.
Prominent among the BDC operators arrested in the State include Baba Usaini, Abubakar Yellow (Amfani), Yusuf Ali Yusuf (Babangida), Ibrahim Shani, Auwal Fagge, and a gold dealer, Muhammad Lawan Sani.
Four of the arrested BDC operators are believed to be related to two persons jailed in Dubai last year on similar charges.
Those arrested are being kept in military and DSS facilities in Abuja and other places, even as their families and lawyers decry the continued detention of the suspects without trial or informing them of their offences.
Further information is that dozens of businessmen who were netted in were invited to DSS offices and military barracks in their states from where they were help.
Family members of those being detained are said to be crying out that they were neither briefed by officials nor were the suspects allowed to contact their families.
The operation was said to have received presidential nod last year, and approval by President Muhammadu Buhari for the exercise to be conducted out of the established bureaucracy.
“Because this is economic warfare against the insurgents and other militant groups, the president, when approving the operation directed that the NFIU take the lead as the country’s financial intelligence powerhouse.
“With the presidential approval, a task team was composed made up of personally selected senior officers who were deployed under the DIA to carry out the special assignment,” a senior government official revealed .
“The main person coordinating the funding ring for Boko Haram is in our custody, he and his closest ally in the business,” an unnamed operative was quoted as saying.
According to the source, about 19 BDCs owned by persons with “direct connection with Boko Haram” were uncovered, while over N300 billion was found to have been pumped into the funding of terrorism in the country.
From one person in Borno State and another in Zaria, Kaduna State, over N50 billion was allegedly traced in funding to the armed gangs.
“A number of those arrested have divulged vital information including operational details of bandits and Boko Haram insurgents, but they are being kept to aid further arrests,” the source also revealed.
According to him, not all the affected businessmen arrested are members of the criminal gangs but many of them were involved in it as a business.