Terrorism: Stakeholders plan to depriving insurgents of funds

 Emeka Ibemere

Since terrorism hits Nigeria like a thunderbolt, through the activities of Boko Haram insurgency in 2009, when the jihadist rebel group started an armed rebellion against the government of Nigeria, many questions have been asked about their sponsors and financial backbones.

Yet, no clue has been given as who their sponsors are, leading to experts suggestions that for such rag-tag army of rebels to have such weapons to fight and overrun an organised national army, there might be heavy funding from terrorist financing, which provides funds for terrorist activities.

 According to experts, terrorist funding may involve funds raised from legitimate sources, such as personal donations and profits from businesses and charitable organizations, as well as from criminal sources, such as the drug trade, the smuggling of weapons and other goods, fraud, kidnapping and extortion.

Money launderers are used to evade authorities' attention and to protect the identity of their sponsors and of the ultimate beneficiaries of the funds. However, financial transactions associated with terrorist financing tend to be in smaller amounts than is the case with money laundering, and when terrorists raise funds from legitimate sources, the detection and tracking of these funds becomes more difficult.

It was gathered that to move their funds, terrorists use the formal banking system, informal value-transfer systems, Hawalas and Hundis and, the oldest method of asset-transfer, the physical transportation of cash, gold and other valuables through smuggling routes.

FINTRAC's analysts are finding that in their disclosures to date, funds suspected of being used for terrorist activities financing are moved out of Africa through traditional banking centers to countries with major financial hubs, in what is likely an effort to conceal their final destination.

However, financial intelligence is said to be used to assist money laundering and terrorist financing investigations in the context of a wider variety of criminal investigations, where the origins of the suspected criminal proceeds are linked to drug trafficking, fraud, tax evasion, corruption, and other criminal offences.

Terrorist financing topped the agenda of the five-day inter-agency training programme on, Cross Border Financial Investigation organized by the United States Department of Homeland Security, for officers of the Nigeria Police Force, NPF; Nigeria Immigration Service, NIS; Nigeria Customs Service, NCS; National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, and the EFCC, last week in Abuja.

 During the opening ceremony of what seems to be all stakeholders forum on the issue, Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Ibrahim Lamorde, advocated improved financial intelligence gathering by the anti-graft agency and other law enforcement agencies in the country to check flow of illicit funds, if the war on terror must be won.

“A reputable strategy to fight insurgency is to deprive the insurgents of funds, because there is no dispute that illicit funds movement across borders fuels organized crimes, including terror attacks and insurgency in Nigeria,” Lamorde said.

According to him, “There is an urgent need to strengthen our financial intelligence architecture to enable us effectively monitor cash trails and check illicit cash flow to organized criminal gangs.”

Lamorde stressed that it was of great concern that “up till now, the major concern in the fight against insurgency is on how the insurgents fund their operations within the sub-region.” He said.

“While tremendous progress has been recorded in strengthening the Anti-Money Laundering Regulations and the Compliance Regime in Nigeria, monitoring the movement of cash outside the financial sector, remains a major challenge, because of Nigeria’s predominantly cash-based economy”.

The EFCC boss Chairman, also applauded the commitment of the United States government in assisting Nigeria surmount its contemporary challenges through institutional development.

 “It is gratifying that this programme is coming a few weeks after the historic visit of President Muhammadu Buhari, to the United State, where he and President Barack Obama pledged to deepen the cooperation and friendship between our two countries”.

 Lamorde who said he had always considered the United States as a dependable ally in the fight against economic crimes and corruption in Nigeria, explained that the record of partnership between the EFCC and major US institutions, such as the Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation, FBI, United States Postal Inspection Service, United States Secret Service, among others, bears testimony to this.

 He said the EFCC has benefitted from several training programmes organized by US agencies in Nigeria, Ghana, Malta, Botswana and the United States. He however described the impact of such exposure on the operations of the Commission as invaluable.

 Lamorde who said the focus of the training programme, Cross Border Financial Investigation, is most timely considering the challenges that that confront Nigeria and her neighbours in the areas of money laundering and terrorist financing said, it has become imperative to strengthen our financial intelligence architecture to be able to monitor cash trails and check illicit cash flow to organized criminal gangs.

 He said while tremendous progress has been recorded in strengthening the anti money laundering regulation and compliance regime in Nigeria, monitoring the movement of cash outside the financial sector, remains a major challenge, considering that Nigeria is still predominantly a cash-based economy.

 His solace is however in the fact that the EFCC, in collaboration with the Nigeria Customs Service and the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, have in the last few years taken very bold steps to check illicit movement of cash across our borders; where operatives stationed at major international airports across the country have intercepted millions of dollars in cash, which were not declared to customs by their owners.

This measure, he recalls, said accounted for the significant drop in currency outflow outside Nigeria in 2013, as currency declaration dropped from Nine billion, nine hundred and twenty six million, seven hundred and thirty nine thousand, six hundred and forty eight dollars ($9,926,739,648.00) to one billion, three hundred and twenty four million, forty five thousand, six hundred and seventeen dollars ($1,324,045,617.00). There was a further drop in 2014 as currency outflows recorded an all- time low of $807,585,061.70.

 Deputy Chief of Mission, United State Embassy, Maria Brewer said that the training programme will expose participants to new trends and techniques in combating economic and financial crimes.

 “Since economic and financial crimes is a global phenomenon, the training will focus among others, on taking away proceed of crime, because when you take away the money, you take away why people do crime”, she said.

 Other dignitaries at the opening ceremony included, Benjamin Bryan, acting director, International Narcotics and Law Enforcement US Mission Abuja; Steve Robinson, Attaché, Department of Homeland Security Investigation, DHSI; T. A. Hundeyin, Deputy Comptroller General of Immigration, who represented the NIS boss, and Alhaji Hamisa Lawal, Commander of Narcotics, who represented the NDLEA boss.

The highpoint of the ceremony was the donation of a high-tech counting machine to the EFCC. Brewer, who made the presentation on behalf of the US government, said that it was one way, in which the President Barack Obama-led administration, planned to assist the EFCC and the country at large in fighting corruption.

It would be recalled that since 2009, when the goons started, their uprising it started peacefully during the first seven years of its existence as local vigilante but changed in 2009 when the Nigerian government launched an investigation into the group's activities following reports that its members were arming themselves.

When the government decided to wade into action, they arrested several members of the group in Bauchi, which sparked clashes with Nigerian security forces leading to the deaths of an estimated 700 people. During the fighting with the security forces Boko Haram fighters reportedly "used fuel-laden motorcycles" and "bows with poison arrows" to attack a police station.

The group's founder and then leader Mohammed Yusuf was also killed during this time while still in police custody. After Yusuf's killing, Abubakar Shekau became the leader and still holds the position as of January 2015, when his controversial death was announced.

After the killing of M. Yusuf, the group carried out its first terrorist attack in Borno in January 2010. It resulted in the killing of four people. Since then, the violence has only escalated in terms of both frequency and intensity. In September 2010, a Bauchi prison break freed more than 700 Boko Haram militants, replenishing their force.

On 29 May 2011, a few hours after Goodluck Jonathan was sworn in as president, several bombings purportedly by Boko Haram killed 15 and injured 55. On 16 June, Boko Haram claimed to have conducted the Abuja police headquarters bombing, the first known suicide attack in Nigeria. Two months later the United Nations building in Abuja was bombed, signifying the first time that Boko Haram attacked an international organisation.

 In December, it carried out attacks in Damaturu killing over a hundred people, subsequently clashing with security forces in December, resulting in at least 68 deaths. Two days later on Christmas Day, Boko Haram attacked several Christian churches with bomb blasts and shootings. Till date, the gang has not relented in their attacks on the soul of the nation.