The revelation by a former General Officer Commanding 1 Division of the Nigerian Army, Kaduna, Maj Gen Danjuma Ali-Keffi (rtd), that the air crash that killed former Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Ibrahim Attahiru, was linked to terror financiers is an opportunity for President Bola Tinubu’s administration to demonstrate the sincerity of its avowed commitment to fight terror financiers and crude oil thieves, Ejiofor Alike reports
The failure of successive administrations to unmask alleged Nigerian figures of terrorism and crude oil theft has left many citizens with the impression that previous administrations paid lip service to the fight against terrorist financing and crude oil theft. oil.
Despite mounting evidence suggesting that other hardliners were thwarting the war on terror and crude oil theft, previous administrations failed to investigate leads provided through intelligence officials and other relevant stakeholders.
Nigerians were alarmed again with a recent allegation by a former General Officer Commanding (GOC) 1 Division of the Nigerian Army, Kaduna, Maj Gen Danjuma Ali-Keffi (rtd) that terror sponsors were behind the air crash that killed former Chief of Army Staff, Lt Gen Ibrahim Attahiru, and called on President Bola Tinubu to probe the air disaster.
While shocking, Ali-Keffi’s claim stunned intelligence and security analysts, as Nigerians had already learned that some hardliners in former President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration were supporting Boko Haram.
Speaking on a live television programme in August 2021, a former Deputy Director of Defence Administration, Commodore Kunle Olawunmi (rtd) had alleged that the Nigerian government knew those behind the Boko Haram insurgency in the country, stressing that some of them were serving governors and senators while others were working in Aso Rock.
Instead of using Olawunmi’s experience with military intelligence to unmask Nigeria’s enemies who allegedly serve in the Buhari administration, the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) reportedly invited him to reflect after the interview.
His lawyer, a human rights activist and senior Nigerian human rights defender (SAN), who accompanied him to the DIA’s headquarters in Abuja, told Premium Times that Olawunmi had returned home after what the lead lawyer described as a verbal exchange with his “colleagues. “»
Subsequently, the allegation went unnoticed, lending credibility to the claims of the retired army intelligence officer.
Shortly after Ali-Keffi’s revelation, the Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Mr. Dele Alake, during a stopover at the site of the explosion in Ibadan, capital of Oyo State, revealed that since commenting on the involvement of hardcore and high-ranking Nigerians in illegal mining activities in the National Assembly, He had been receiving life-threatening messages.
“I’ve said it openly; Of course, I won threats, but we don’t bully others because we have to say those things, and anyway, I wasn’t saying anything new, most people knew.
“A lot of other people have said it; I just gave it an official stamp, based on intelligence reports,” Alake was quoted as saying.
The question on the minds of many Nigerians, including some foot soldiers fighting in the insurgency war, is this: if it is not unusual wisdom within government and intelligence circles that hardcore Nigerians are all such crimes, why is it complicated for the perpetrators to be brought to justice?What is justice if the war waged through the government is genuine and sincere?
Despite Alake’s claims that he was under threat, the hordes of the country’s security and intelligence agencies, who delight in tracking innocent Nigerians and violating human rights, have failed to notice the compatibility to publicly disclose who the threat is.
Before Ali-Keffi and Alake made their accusations, the former deputy governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Dr. Obadiah Mailafia, had continuously claimed that agents of former President Buhari’s administration were the national killers.
Not surprisingly, when Mailafia died in September 2021, his harsh denunciation of the leadership led by former President Buhari for its alleged complicity in the lack of national trust fueled considerations and suspicions about the cause of his death.
Although the chief medical director of Abuja University Hospital (UATH), Professor Bissallah Ekele, claimed that Mailafia died of COVID-19 “due to comorbidities”, the Middle Belts Forum (MBF) and some public commentators alleged misconduct. research.
While much has been said about hardcore Nigerians being involved in oil theft and terrorist financing, Ali-Keffi’s revelation is surprising, given his strategic role in the Buhari administration, as an integral component of the administration’s security architecture.
In the candid interview with THISDAY, Ali-Keffi lamented that at least one person, the late army chief of staff and 11 senior officers and team members, were killed in a “suspicious” plane crash and the case was swept under the rug. The full report of the investigation into the twist of fate has not been made public.
He said Attahiru came up with the strategy to end terrorism in the north by cutting off the oxygen of terrorism, adding financing and logistics and getting rid of the financiers of terrorism, Ali-Keffi said.
Ali-Keffi, who was tasked with obtaining the head of the backward army, as Division 1 of the GOC in Kaduna, highlighted the sudden replacement in time of Attahiru to Kaduna, the replacement of the aircraft, the replacement of the landing airport and the army flights. at Kaduna International Airport, its landing in turbulent and stormy weather and the devastating explosion that occurred before the crash.
He also highlighted the fact that there was no crater or effect in the area of the crash, noting that the bodies of the passengers were thrown from the plane and burned beyond its popularity, even before the plane crashed, a strong indication that there was an “explosion. “
Ali-Keffi, who headed the Operation Service Wide (OSW), a presidential task force, which he was commanding at the time of Attahiru’s headship of the Nigerian Army, had as its primary mandate to dismantle the terrorism financing network in order to aid the fight against terrorism and insurgency.
Ali-Keffi had written in the past to Tinubu about his arrest, detention and mandatory retirement, following revelations through a presidential research organization he directed.
The investigation investigates the involvement of senior government officials, a senior banker, and senior military officers in the financing of terrorism.
Ali-Keffi said he headed a presidency-instituted Board of Inquiry (BOI) convened by Major General Babagana Monguno (rtd), the former National Security Adviser (NSA), which sat in the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) for five weeks, from early January to late February 2020.
The retired military general said the BOI under his headship uncovered 295 oil tankers that conveyed petrol, with the major smugglers identified.
According to him, “the most troubling thing is that some of the Americans involved in financing Boko Haram terrorists and who were also involved in the acquisition and circulation of weapons and ammunition for Boko Haram and other criminal organizations had ties to the military. “
President Tinubu is urgently investigating the cause of the plane crash and Ali-Keffi’s accusations if he needs his administration to make a difference in the war on terror and oil theft. It is not enough to accuse him of bitterness in rejecting the accusations.
Founded on January 22, 1995, THISDAY is published through THISDAY NEWSPAPERS LTD. , 35 Creek Road Apapa, Lagos, Nigeria, with offices in 36 states of Nigeria, the Federal Capital Territory and around the world. It is Nigeria’s most authoritative news outlet, being held on all platforms for the political, business, professional and diplomatic elite and the middle classes in general, while also serving as a meeting point for new ideas, cultures and technologies for the ambitious and millennials. The newspaper is a public framework committed to finding facts and reasons, covering a diversity of topics, from breaking news to politics, business, markets, arts, sports and community, to the intersection of other people and society.
You can email us at: hello@thisdaylive. com or our Contact Us page.