Tracking the sect’s cash flow

Taiwo Ogundipe, Associate Editor traces some of the sources of funding for Boko Haram

The riddle about the sources of funding for the much dreaded group, Boko Haram once again came to the fore in the wake of the recent massive assault on Kano metropolis as and Bauchi city. A spokesman of the group reportedly said in an interview, that the extensive bombardments wrought by it came about because the governors of the affected two states reneged on an agreement to make regular payments to it. The interview was sourced from an online publication, 247ureports.

The unnamed interviewee was quoted as saying “The reason for Kano and Bauchi States attacks a few days ago was hinged on failed promises by the governors of the two states.” The interviewee claimed further that many northern governors have relationships with the group. “Most of them pay us monthly to leave their states alone,” the spokesman reportedly said.

According to him, the immediate past  ANPP governor in Kano State, Ibrahim Shekarau agreed in late 2004 to an initial monthly payment of N5million to the group. This, he said, was later raised to N10 million in 2009. Apart from this, he said the government also provided institutional infrastructural support through the Hisbah (Islam Police) project which received a yearly budgetary allocation of N1.01billion.

The new Governor, Rabiu Kwankwaso, on assumption of office, according to the interviewee, stopped the outflow of this largesse including the funding of the ‘Islam Police’.

Regarding Bauchi, the Boko Haram spokesperson said an agreement was reached with the incumbent governor, Isa Yuguda in 2008, also to the tune of a monthly disbursement of N10 million. The agreement, he said, also entailed the provision of training grounds on the many mountains scattered in Bauchi State as well as a promise of protection against arrests by the Federal Government. 

The Bauchi State governor, he claimed, stopped the monthly fund in mid 2011. The Boko Haram spokesman said the group was not happy but remained loyal to the agreement because of the unfettered access to the mountains of Bauchi as training camps.” 

Continuing, he said: “the Northern governors are overwhelmed about the strength of the group and are aware of the capabilities of Boko Haram operatives in their respective states”. Some of the State government officials, according to him, visit their camps to watch them in training exercises. The training, he said, is  harder than that of the Nigerian military.

The two state governments promptly denied the allegation. In separate statements, the two state governments categorically said their governors had nothing to do with Boko Haram. The Bauchi State government denigrated the allegation as a “very, very strange” one because “Isa Yuguda (the governor) cannot be involved in such.” 

The denials not withstanding, some observers are of the opinion that these claims should be thoroughly probed. Notably, this was not the first time politicians or high profile public officials especially governors were fingered as sources of funding for the group. Some even believe that the group was originated by some politicians, especially governors who used them to fight elections.

Perhaps, the first concrete proof that the Boko Haram emergence and funding have political undertone came with the arrest, on November 3 last year, by operatives of the  State Security Service (SSS)  of another self-professed spokesman of the Islamic group, identified as Ali Sanda Umar Konduga, alias “Usman al-Zawahiri.”

The SSS paraded the man who had said to have revealed names of local politicians who have been funding the group.  The SSS claimed that Konduga disclosed that Boko Haram had origins in a militia group called ECOMOG which enjoyed the  patronage of top politicians in the north-eastern state of Borno, especially the then Governor Ali Modu Sheriff. Konduga reportedly confessed that he was formerly a member of the ECOMOG militia group before he and several of his colleagues joined Boko Haram. 

The suspect, speaking through an interpreter, also told reporters at the session that he was trained by Mohammed Yusuf, the late Boko Haram leader, who was killed in police custody in 2009. 

Konduga claimed that ex-Governor Sheriff even appointed one of their leaders, Fuji Foi, as a commissioner. But when Foi was sacked and then murdered, the sect believed that his death was political and swore to avenge it. He added that that was when the late Saidu Pindar, Nigeria’s former Ambassador to Sao Tome and Principe, stepped in as a major financier of the sect and promised them N10 million. Al-Zawahiri said Pindar was on his way to deliver N5 million to them when he had a road accident and died. 

Pindar died on August 31 2011 along the Kaduna-Zaria road, aged 57. Prior to his death, he had contested the 2011 election in Borno State as the running mate to the PDP gubernatorial candidate, Alhaji Muhammadu Goni. Konduga said he was nicknamed Usman Al-Zawahiri by Pindar in order to conceal his identity for security reasons. Al-Zawahiri is the name of the leader of al Qaeda. 

Konduga also said a serving senator, Mohammed Ali Ndume, took over the sponsorship of the sect after Pindar’s death. Ndume was a two-term member of the House of Representatives, on the platform of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP). He served as Minority Leader before he decamped to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 2011 in order to contest for the Senate from Borno South district.

Konduga alleged that it was the senator who scripted threat messages to Governors Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu and Sule Lamido of Niger and Jigawa States respectively, as well as to former President Olusegun Obasanjo,  the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Mohammed Bello Adoke and the chairman of the Borno State Election Petition Tribunal, Justice Sabo Adamu. His words: “The intention of the threat to the chairman of the Borno State Election Petition Tribunal was to ensure that he nullified the present administration of Governor Kashim Shettima.”

Ndume was arrested by the SSS and had since been docked. The SSS spokesperson, Mrs Marilyn Ogar disclosed that an analysis of Al-Zawahiri’s phone confirmed constant communication between him and the legislator. She added that the arrest of Ndume “further confirms the Service position that some of the Boko Haram extremists have political patronage and sponsorship.” 

Brigadier-General Jeremiah Useni (rtd), former deputy chairman of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP, had last year, alleged that Boko Haram members enjoy patronage of top local politicians. He said that a few years ago while he was visiting Borno State as the deputy national chairman of the ANPP, he saw an “army” of youths hawking petroleum products illegally on major streets, where upon he asked the governor of Borno State why his administration allowed young men to openly engage in illegal trading in petroleum products. 

According to Useni, the governor then answered him, “...leave them, they are very useful to us [during] general elections [as thugs], we...use them to turn everywhere [i.e. stir trouble].”

Recent events suggest that Boko Haram has gone beyond seeking funds from local politicians as its members have turned to raiding banks to raise funds while also reaching out to foreign sources. The Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lt-Gen. Azubuike Ihejirika, told journalists  recently that the Army did establish the involvement of foreigners in the operations of Boko Haram. He, however, declined to name the countries or foreign backers of the group. He said weapons and operational gadgets captured from the group are strong evidence that there is foreign involvement in the terrorism going on in Nigeria.

He said: “It is definite that the group that call themselves Boko Haram or terrorists receive training and possibly funding from some foreign elements. This is evident from the types of weapons we have captured from them; from the type of communication equipment we have captured and from the expertise they have displayed in the preparation of improvised explosive devices. These are pointers to the fact that there is foreign involvement in the terrorism going on in Nigeria.”