The pan-Yoruba Socio-political Organization, Afenifere, has challenged the government of President Muhammadu Buhari to take prompt action against the alleged sponsors of terrorism now.
It said rather than just periodically announcing the efforts it was making in combating the menace of terrorism, government should take action by prosecuting the sponsors.
The body threw the challenge while reacting to the announcement by the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, that the federal government has identified 96 sponsors of terror groups in Nigeria.
Mohammed had on Thursday informed the public that 123 companies and 33 Bureau de change were linked to terrorists, in addition to 26 suspected bandits/kidnappers and seven co-conspirators identified.
He added that 45 suspects of the identified 96 sponsors of the terror groups would soon face prosecution.
A statement issued by Afenifere’s National Publicity Secretary, Comrade Jare Ajayi, said various officials of the federal government had, at different times, talked about the government’s efforts at curtailing the menace of terrorism that is gradually enveloping the country.
“But other than occasional reports of bombardments of terrorists’ camps by the military, no concrete steps are seen to be taken by the government to tackle the roots of the problem. Indeed, the failure of the government to act decisively in this respect has emboldened the terrorists to be more daring – leading to the death of thousands of people and capturing of many communities particularly in the northern part of the country by the terror groups”.
Afenifere stated further that the disclosure by Borno State Governor Babangana Zulum that the Islamic West African Province (ISWAP) was about taking over the northeast not only attested to the above claim, it should be a serious reason for concern warranting decisive actions on the part of the government and its agencies.
Afenifere added that disclosures by the government no longer impressed majority of Nigerians as many of the claims and promises made in the past by the government were not followed up with necessary actions.
“For instance, he recalled that the United Arab Emirate announced, last year, that six Nigerians were among the 39 terrorists on its wanted list. The six were actually tried and convicted in that country for setting up a Boko Haram cell in the UAE to raise funds and material assistance for insurgents in Nigeria. The Nigerians were said to have transferred up to $800,000 in favour of Boko Haram between 2015 and 2016.
“Nigeria was supposed to follow up on this but has not. Meaning that foreign countries appear to be more concerned about insecurity and terrorism acts going on in Nigeria even more than our own government seems to be,” it stated.
