The Chief of Defence Standards and Evaluations at the Defence Headquarters (DHQ) Major General Adekunle Ariyibi has claimed that foreign collaborators are behind the funding of Boko Haram and other terrorists, across the country.
Ariyibi made the comment on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief, adding that Boko Haram and the Islamic State in West African Province (ISWAP)’s foreign backing is one of the reasons the war against terrorism has lingered on in Nigeria.
“There’s no doubt about it that this sort of operation cannot be sustainable for the past 15 years without some sort of external collaboration and assistance,” he said.
‘It’s obvious that the operations of Boko Haram and the Islamic State in West African Province (ISWAP) have metamorphosized since their allegiance with ISIS, and they have had access to international funding which is beyond the shores of Nigeria.
“It’s obvious in the caliber of weapons you see them display. It’s obvious in the sort of sustainability plans that they have. Right now, they are moving into drones and not only surveillance drones but also drones that can deliver leather weaponry.”
A few days ago, US Congressman Scott Perry said that the aborted United States Agency for International Development (USAID) funded terrorist bodies such as Boko Haram.
That comment has continued to steer debates in Nigeria and beyond, and General Ariyibi agrees that such terrorist organisations have foreign backers.
“So, there’s no doubt about it that this is the lifeline which is sustaining these operations beyond the local collections that they make on taxing and all of that,” Major General Ariyibi argued.
‘You can’t say it’s just an allegation; it’s more than that,” a former Chairman of the Senate Committee on Army, Senator Ali Ndume said on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics. “That’s why the Nigerian government and the National Assembly, especially, need to look into it to investigate and verify the veracity of such a very weighty allegation.”
In 2024, the Federal Government named some persons and and Bureau de Change (BDCs) as terrorism funders. Authorities in the United Arab Emirates and the US had at some point also froze the assets of some persons and handed others different sanctions over links to terrorism funding.
