Nigeria’s Chief of Defence Staff, General Christopher Musa, says the identification and prosecution of terrorism financiers is still in progress, noting that the process is complicated by both legal hurdles and international money trails.
“I think the process is on, I can speak for this government … and because it has to do with a lot of legal issues and because again, it has to do with international connections. Some of them have funds coming from outside, we cannot do anything from within,” Musa explained during an appearance on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Thursday.
According to him, financiers often use local recruits who are equipped with motorcycles and required to remit money into designated accounts. “We know them. The local ones, what they do normally is to employ a few individuals, provide motorcycles for them and those ones are remitting funds daily into some accounts. So, it’s being tracked. They try to circulate these monies and that’s why it’s important for us to be able to track the funds,” he said.
Musa praised the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) for its work in uncovering financial links to terrorism. “The NFIU has been doing so much, apart from the intelligence set up, the financial links are also being followed through and through and arrests have been made. I can assure you the Attorney-General of the Federation, the NSA (Nuhu Ribadu) are all working seriously to ensure that we address those issues,” he stated.
The CDS further revealed that several agencies, including the Department of State Services (DSS), National Intelligence Agency (NIA), and Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA), are also investigating political actors suspected of sponsoring insecurity.
“You know criminals work together. They synergise their efforts together, both the bandits and terrorists, because one, a common goal, they want to make money, they want to make sure communities are suffering for whatever reason. And again, some part of politics, when there is peace, it shows the government is doing well and when there is no peace it shows the government is not doing well,” Musa observed.
Pointing to a rise in violence ahead of elections, he added: “You realise that last year, we had the least number of deaths, then, how come suddenly everything has gone up? Because politics has come in, elections are coming in. You cannot rule out the fact that some individuals are making sure there is no peace. The funny thing is that how do you want to kill the people you want to govern? What do you gain from it?”
Asked directly if politicians behind terrorism had been identified, the CDS simply responded: “Work is in progress.”
He also called for reforms in Nigeria’s justice system, arguing that terrorism-related cases should be expedited. “I can tell you that the DSS, the NIA, the NFIU and the DIA are all working assiduously to ensure… and again, it has to do with legal system. We have to review our legal system because some of the punishment and prosecution take too long. Maybe if we have a special court that will treat (terrorism) cases as quickly as they are. I think we also need to review the punishment for offences,” Musa said.
