Buhari Govt Indicted As UAE Convicts Six Nigerians For Funding Boko Haram

• Two sentenced to life imprisonment, four bags ten years jail term

In a development that could validate a widely touted conjecture of the government having a hand in terrorism that has brought the country to the brink, an Abu Dhabi Federal Court of Appeal in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has affirmed the conviction six Nigerians in connection with Boko Haram.

The Nigerians, according to court documents, between 2015 and 2016, were allegedly involved in cash transfers totalling $782,000.00 to Boko Haram.

The appellate Court upheld the conviction after an earlier attempt to overturn the judgement at a lower court failed

Surajo Abubakar Muhammad and Saleh Yusuf Adamu were sentenced to life imprisonment, Daily Trust reported on Monday

The rest, Ibrahim Ali Alhassan, AbdurRahman Ado Musa, Bashir Ali Yusuf and Muhammad Ibrahim Isa, got ten-year imprisonment each.

Funding of terrorism is an act contrary to Article 29, Clause 3 of UAE’s Federal Anti-Terrorism Law No 7 of 2017.

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 negates 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 transactions were 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 reportedly funnelled misappropriated public funds to terrorists.

Sa’idu’s tactic is using unidentified Arab persons on a visit to Dubai from Turkey to hand over US Dollars to one of the convicts, who then remit Naira equivalent to the agent.

Families of the convicts say they were “framed up”, insisting their bureau de change business in the UAE was legitimate.