Nigeria’s former Permanent Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Joe Kechi, is urging Nigerian intelligence agencies and security forces to reveal the true sponsors of Boko Haram.
He’s also calling on the Nigerian Senate to use its ongoing investigation to uncover the long-standing questions about terrorism financing in the country.
“The intelligence agencies, the military, the police—they owe it a duty to tell the Nigerian people the truth about Boko Haram,” Kechi said.
Kechi was referencing recent mind-boggling allegations by U.S. Congressman U.S. Congressman Scott Perry, who recently alleged that the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has been funding terrorist organizations, including Boko Haram.
However, these claims have been denied by USAID and the U.S. Ambassador to Nigeria.
Uncovering the Truth
In response to these allegations, the Nigerian House of Representatives has initiated an investigation into the operations of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the country to determine the veracity of the claims and to uncover the identities and funding sources of these NGOs.
Kechi commended the Nigerian National Assembly’s decision to probe the matter but warned against blindly accepting external allegations.
“My only hope is that the intelligence chiefs will be honest with the Nigerian people and tell us exactly what they know and what they do not know,” Kechi said. He questioned why Nigerian authorities had yet to uncover Boko Haram’s sponsors despite over a decade of insurgency.
“More than 50,000 people have died, over 1 million have been displaced, and people continue to die daily, yet we have no idea who the sponsors are or why this crisis has lasted so long,” he said.
Kechi also raised concerns about past reports on alleged Boko Haram financiers in Dubai and other locations, questioning why the intelligence community had failed to expose the group’s funding sources despite Nigeria allocating over a billion dollars annually to defence.
You can view the entire interview in our featured video window above.
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