Australian negotiator Dr Stephen Davis continues making shocking claims now alleging that Boko Haram pass a large amount of their finances through the Central Bank Of Nigeria (CBN).This comes days after the expert, who had spent 4 months in Nigeria’s North-East negotiating for the release of Chibok girls abducted by insurgents on April 14, said some politicians from the opposition sponsored Boko Haram.
In an exclusive phone interview with the Nigerian TheCable, Davis insisted that Boko Haram commanders told him that a top CBN official (name not provided by TheCable for legal reasons) was involved in funding the insurgency in the country.When asked by the journalist about where Boko Haram get the financial support from, the 63-year-old experienced negotiator said the source could not be traced because “it is done through a legal channel, through the gatekeeper, the CBN, and that makes it very easy to cover up”.
According to Davis, one of the biggest suppliers of arms and military uniforms to Boko Haram lives in Egypt and receives money sent by political sponsors from Nigeria. However the legal transaction of the funds is carried out with the help of the CBN, Davis added.
He also revealed that the involved official is a relative of Abuja bombings suspects.
“Meanwhile, the CBN official who handles the funding is an uncle to three of those arrested in connection with the Nyanya bombings. The three boys lived with him. They were arrested by the SSS (Department of State Security) after the bombings but they do not seem to have been interrogated about their uncle in CBN. Or if they have given up information about their uncle then the SSS has not moved against him… Also, a senior official of CBN, who recently left the bank, was very close to Sodiq Aminu Ogwuche, the mastermind of the Nyanya bombings who also schooled in Sudan. Boko haram commanders said Ogwuche’s wife used to visit this top official in his office at the headquarters of the bank in Abuja before the Nyanya bombings".
Explaining why he decided to finally make the revelation, Davis said it was because the Nigerian authorities were slow in handling the security issues, specifically the kidnap of Chibok girls. Davis, the father of 3 daughters, said it was “heart-breaking” for him to think of what the Nigerian school girls might be experiencing in Boko Haram captivity.
Davis, who was PhD in political geography, narrated that he first though that politicians might be involved in the insurgency, when his efforts to negotiate on girls release were sabotaged:
“The political sponsors are very powerful because they supply the finances and the arms. Until they are cut off from the group, those girls will not be released. We are talking about 200 Chibok schoolgirls, but there are over 300 other girls that have been kidnapped. There are many young men that they also kidnapped and turned them against their families. They asked them to go and slaughter their family members and they are doing it. Nobody is talking about those ones. They are the new child soldiers.”
The expert several times repeated that the first thing to do to enable children’s release was “to stop the bagman who supplies weapons and military uniforms. We know his name, location and associates. If the man is stopped, the slaughterers, the ritual arm of the group, would be demobilised. The girls can be released afterwards. This man controls these ritualists.”
It would be recalled that more than 200 girls abducted in Chibok on April 14 by Boko Haram insurgents are still held in captivity. Foreign analysts from all over the world provide their expert opinion on who might be responsible for supporting insurgency in the country. In one of the recent editorial a Russian expert spoke about how and why the Nigerian opposition might benefit from terrorism.
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