TheCable

Abubakar Malami, attorney-general of the federation, says the federal government has blocked terrorism funding in Nigeria.

Malami said this during an interview with NAN in New York.

TheCable had reported that the United Arab Emirates (UAE) recently placed six Nigerians on its terror list.

On Monday, Femi Adesina, presidential spokesperson, said the federal government is not interested in naming and shaming sponsors of terrorism but to bring them to justice.

Speaking on the development, Malami said the federal government has identified those who are responsible for financing terrorism in the country.

The attorney-general said “aggressive” investigation is being conducted that is “positively” impacting the fight against terrorism in the country.

Malami said he will not make any disclosure about the ongoing investigation because it will undermine the “successes” being recorded.

“We have succeeded in identifying those that are responsible for funding terrorists,” the minister said.

“We have also blocked the leakages associated with funding and then embarking on aggressive investigation that is indeed impacting positively in term of the fight against terrorism.

“But then, the truth of the matter is that investigation is ongoing, advancing and for the purpose of investigation, I wouldn’t like to be pre-emptive in terms of making disclosures that would have the effect of undermining the successes we are recording as far as investigation is concerned.”

Speaking further, Malami said the arrest and detention of alleged terrorism financiers will be legally backed by judicial process.

He said the arrest of alleged terrorism financiers has “crippled substantially” terrorism funding in the country and translated into some “major improvements” in the fight against insurgency.

“But one thing I can tell you for sure is that whatever we do in terms of detention and in terms of arrest is indeed backed by judicial process,” he added.

“We have indeed obtained a legitimate court order taking into consideration what we have presented before the court; the court eventually exercised its discretion in terms of granting orders that we can have them in custody.

“This is pending the conclusion of investigation, which investigation in essence is indeed deeply taking place and we are making a lot of successes and recording a lot of progress in the direction of investigation.

“But one thing I can say for sure is, arising from such arrests, the terrorist funding and financing has indeed been crippled substantially and that eventually translated to some major improvements being recorded as far as crippling the strength of terrorists is concerned within the nation.

“You can see visibly that we are indeed witnessing tremendous successes associated with the Boko Haram, which translate to significant decimation of the Boko Haram terrorists.

“They (Boko Haram) have been decimated to a larger extent and you can see what is unfolding as far as the North West banditry activities are concerned.”