About 400 businessmen have been, reportedly, arrested for allegedly funding Boko Haram insurgents and bandits.
According to DailyTrust, the suspects were arrested in Kano, Borno, Abuja, Lagos, Sokoto, Adamawa, Kaduna and Zamfara.
The newspaper reported that an initial list of 957 suspects comprising bureau de change (BDC) operators, gold miners and sellers, and other businessmen is being acted upon.
The operation was said to have been approved by President Muhammadu Buhari in 2020.
In Kano, a major focus for the operation, traders at the foreign exchange open market in Wapa, Fagge Local Government, were picked up on March 9, 15th and 16th, the Daily Trust reported..
And among them are bureau de change operators, gold miners and sellers and businessmen.
Prominent among the bureau de change operators arrested in the state are
Baba Usaini
Abubakar Yellow (Amfani)
Yusuf Ali Yusuf (Babangida)
Ibrahim Shani
Adamu Ibrahim Naim
Inuwa Talle Danladi
Muhammad Yahaya
Yahaya Saidu Ibrahim
Muhammed Aliyu Adam
Sadi Saidu Abdullahi
Surajo Adam Muhammad
Auwalu Ibrahim Faggge
Nura Tasiu
Muhammed Lawal Sani
Muhammed Abba Lawan
Bashir Ali
Abdullahi Umar Usman
Hassa Idris
Nura Gani,
Sani Maiwaya
Abdulrahman Kokawa
Garzali Yusuf
Auwalu Gambo,
Muhammad Lawan Sani (a gold dealer)
Four of the arrested BDC operators are related to two persons jailed in Dubai last year on similar charges.
A source, however, told the newspaper that about 400 persons have been arrested in Kano, Borno, Abuja, Lagos, Sokoto, Adamawa, Kaduna and Zamfara.
Those arrested are reportedly being kept in military and DSS facilities in Abuja and other places.
“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,” Daily Trust quoted a source to have said.
The source added that “with the presidential approval, a task team was composed of personally selected senior officers who were deployed under the DIA to carry out the special assignment”.
“The main person coordinating the funding ring for Boko Haram is in our custody, he and his closest ally in the business,” he said.
Another source was quoted to have said about 19 BDCs owned by persons with “direct connection with Boko Haram” were uncovered, while over N300 billion was found to have been used in funding terrorism.
Apart from one person in Borno and another in Zaria, Kaduna state, the source said over N50 billion were traced in funding to the armed groups.
“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 was quoted to have said.
Family members of those arrested, the newspaper reported, have been calling on the government for their release.
