Security agencies invite six alleged terror financiers for questioning

Security agencies have invited six individuals and three companies recently designated by the Nigeria Sanctions Committee (NSC) for alleged terrorism financing, as investigations into their suspected links to the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) and affiliated terrorist networks intensify.

Also, the Federal Government has so far secured 1,721 terrorism-related convictions through mass trials of terrorists since the programme began in 2017.

Meanwhile, the Director-General of the Department of State Services (DSS), Oluwatosin Ajayi, has disclosed that the Service is pursuing several high-impact cybercrime prosecutions as part of efforts to strengthen deterrence and curb the misuse of digital platforms.

According to the United Nations, communities in northern Nigeria have reported cases of individuals joining bandits so they can have food or income. This is just as hunger across Nigeria’s conflict-hit North is at levels not seen in a decade, as violence spreads and aid shrinks.

The coordinated initiative of the Federal Government involved the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA), the Federal Ministry of Justice, the judiciary, security and law enforcement agencies, and international partners.

The ONSA Director Legal Services, Zakari Mijinyawa, disclosed this yesterday during a Joint Security Press Briefing by spokespersons of security, defence and law enforcement agencies.

Ten phases of the mass trials have been conducted, resulting in 1,721 convictions for terrorism and related offences.

The trial ensured that defendants against whom the prosecution could not establish guilt beyond a reasonable doubt were discharged or acquitted, demonstrating the government’s commitment to due process, the rule of law, and fair trial standards.

THE invitation followed the designation of the suspected financiers by the Nigeria Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU), which also directed the freezing of all funds, assets and economic resources linked to them in line with the Terrorism (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022, and relevant United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions.

Speaking at a joint media briefing by security, defence and law enforcement agencies in Abuja yesterday, an official of NFIU, Kingsley Amaku, said the designations were based on extensive intelligence gathering, financial investigations and inter-agency assessments.

According to him, the designated individuals are Muktar Adamu, Ibrahim Ogirima, Adamu Chiroma, Ibrahim Abubakar, Abdullahi Usman and Babangida Hammajam. The affected entities are Abbal Bako & Sons Bureau De Change Limited, Generation Currency BDC Limited and Nine to Nine BDC Limited.

Amaku noted that Muktar Adamu was also sanctioned by the United States Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), alongside Generation Currency BDC Limited and Nine to Nine BDC Limited, for their alleged role in supporting terrorist financing.

He said financial institutions and Designated Non-Financial Businesses and Professions (DNFBPs) had been directed to immediately identify and freeze assets linked to the designated persons and entities.

SPEAKING at the public presentation of Electronic Evidence (Second Edition) and A Compendium of Cases on Electronic Evidence, Volume II, Ajayi said the DSS had deliberately identified cases capable of setting legal precedents and discouraging cyber-enabled offences.

According to him, investigators and prosecutors are focusing on cases whose outcomes could reinforce compliance with the law and promote responsible use of digital platforms.

“We are prosecuting a number of suspects who committed offences under that Act,” Ajayi said, referring to the Cybercrimes Act.

He added that DSS had intentionally selected a handful of cases expected to have significant deterrent value.

“We have picked one, or two, or three, four, five, six that will give impact,” he said.

The DSS chief also revealed that one of the pending cases involves a presidential candidate alleged to have made statements against the President, but declined to provide further details because the matter is before the court.

“There is one of them who is a presidential candidate and disparaged a sitting President. We chose that one. I can’t talk about him because he is in court,” he stated.

MAKING the bandits’ recruitment revelations, yesterday, the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) noted that more than 17 million persons in the North were experiencing “crisis, emergency or catastrophic levels” of hunger.

Nigeria has been battling a jihadist insurgency in the North-East since 2009, with recent expansions into the North-West.

“What concerns us most is how this crisis is expanding,” WFP Regional Director for West and Central Africa, Kinday Samba, stated, adding that the spread of violence “across a much wider area” forces people from farmland, drives displacement, and restricts humanitarian access.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) reported last month that poverty rose under President Bola Tinubu, who embarked on a raft of economic reforms supported by economists but which have also driven up prices.

At the height of the 2025 “lean season”, when the previous year’s food stocks were running low but new crops weren’t ready for harvest, the agency delivered food and nutrition aid to 1.3 million people.