‘Prosecute persons identified as terrorism financiers’

Former Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has urged government to prosecute the 15 persons it named last week as terrorism financiers.

They include nine individuals and six Bureau de Change firms.

He said: “I think this is long overdue. The list came up sometime last year to President Buhari’s administration for them to act on it, but till this minute, nothing has happened to any one person on that list.”

Frank expressed doubts in government’s sincerity in fighting terrorism, saying government only decided to publish the names because Nigerians had been putting pressure on Abuja, since three years after the United Arab Emirates (UAE) listed six Nigerians as terrorism financier suspects.

“One thing is to put up the list, the next is to see the kind of action the government is going to take to make sure every person that is mentioned in that list faces justice,” Frank told Nigeria Info 99.3 Lagos on the show, Hard Facts, yesterday.

He said government failed to act on the UAE list, under former President, Muhammadu Buhari, because of the “presence of high-profile” names on the file.

“We believe and we want to hope that this government would do the right thing and immediately act on that list,” he said.

The former spokesperson, however, said many Nigerians believed the current list was doctored.

He added that neither Buhari nor Tinubu administrations had “shown the capacity, the tenacity, and the will to end insecurity in Nigeria.”

According to him, terrorism has become a business avenue for politicians and security agencies to make money.

Frank said heads of security agencies should resign over their inability to check terrorism, banditry, and large-scale crimes in Nigeria.