Six Nigerians have been reportedly convicted by an Abu Dhabi Federal Court of Appeal in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) over their alleged involvement with funding Boko Haram, a famous terrorist organisation with roots in Nigeria.
Two of those who were convicted, Surajo Abubakar Muhammad and Saleh Yusuf Adamu got life imprisonment sentences while the other four—Ibrahim Ali Alhassan, AbdurRahman Ado Musa, Bashir Ali Yusuf and Muhammad Ibrahim were handed a term of imprisonment for 10 years respectively. The convicts were tried and convicted in 2019.
The judgment of the court also revealed that between 2015 and 2016, the convicts made cash transfers in favour of Boko Haram to the tune of USD782,000.00 though sources close to them said the transactions were for legitimate purposes. This would be the first time that particular individuals have been named as sponsors of the dreaded terrorist ring. A senior government affirmed that the government was aware of the conviction.
Despite the conviction, families of the convicts were adamant that the convicts were framed up considering that they had been doing legitimate bureau de change business in the UAE prior to their arrest.
The conviction of the six individuals was upheld by an appellate court in the UAE after they lost an appeal filed at a lower court. Based on the judgment of court, all the convicts were charged with funding a terror group by facilitating transfers of money from Dubai to Nigeria for terror operations. Their action and operations was proscribed under Article 29, Clause 3 of UAE’s Federal Law No.7 of 2017 with regards to anti-terrorism law.
Courts documents revealed that the convicts were arrested based on a warrant of arrest issued from the office of the National Security Bureau after investigations confirmed their involvement and membership of the Boko Haram terror group in Nigeria, and transferring money for that group.
The convicts were arrested between April 16 and 17 in 2017, and their homes searched according to the search warrant issued by the National Security Prosecution office. The first and second convicts were charged for joining the Boko Haram group in Nigeria knowingly, which was a crime punishable under Article 22/2 of the Federal Law No 7 of 2017 with regards to anti-terrorism punishable by death or life imprisonment.
According to one Ali Alhassan, an elder brother to two of the convicts, Ibrahim and Bashir Ali, said that his siblings were not given a fair hearing during trial, adding that efforts to get the government of Nigeria to intervene was futile.
“There was no fair hearing during the court case; no witnesses and they were just convicted to ten years in prison (Ibrahim and Bashir) and those that provided them with monies were sentenced to 25 years each. They were earlier accused of money laundering and nothing more, but along the line, the charge changed to financing terrorism.”
The Attorney-General and Minister of Justice of Nigeria, Abubakar Malami SAN, said that the Nigerian government was aware of the decision of the court and had written the UAE seeking records of proceedings but was yet to get feedback.
