FG Identifies 15 Financiers Of Terrorism, BDC

Kaduna-based publisher Tukur Mamu is listed by FG as one of the “15 terrorism financiers”

The publisher of Desert Herald, Tukur Mamu, has allegedly been designated by the federal government as one of the suspects in the financing of terrorism.

Punch cited Mamu as one of fifteen companies, which also included six Bureau De Change (BDC) operators and firms and nine individual individuals.

“Designation of Individuals and Entities for March 18, 2024” is a document from the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) that Punch referenced.

According to the NFIU, Mamu “participated in the financing of terrorism by receiving and delivering ransom payments, over the sum of $200,000, in support of ISWAP terrorists for the release of hostages of the Abuja- Kaduna train attack.”

The federal government is presently trying Mamu for allegedly providing support to the terrorists who attacked the train between Abuja and Kaduna in March 2022.

The authorities claimed to have discovered $300,000 in his possession upon his arrest in 2022.

“Terrorist funds” were attached to the money.

Mamu, a well-known Islamic preacher Ahmad Gumi's media assistant, is also suspected of speaking with Boko Haram spokesman Baba Adamu on the phone about the hostages aboard the Abuja-Kaduna train.

The publisher has refuted any support for terrorist organizations.

“The suspected attacker of the St. Francis Catholic Church Owo, Ondo State on June 5, 2022 and the Kuje Correctional Center, according to the NFIU, is one of the terrorists' financiers.”

A member of Ansarul Muslimina Fi Biladissudam, a terrorist organization linked to Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, was identified as another, claiming to be an expert in improvised explosive devices and a specialist in inventing terrorist clandestine communication codes.

A female designated as “a financial courier to ISWAP Okene” and “a senior commander of the Islamic State of West Africa Province Okene” were also mentioned by the NFIU. She was supposedly in charge of allocating money to the wives and widows of the terrorist combatants in the group.

Those who “received a total of N57m from between 2014 and 2017” and “a total inflow of N61.4 bn and a total outflow of N51.7bn from his accounts” were also included in the list of suspects.