Boko Haram: UAE Court Convicts Six Nigerians For Wiring $782,000 To Aid Terrorism

According to Daily Trust, the accused persons, Surajo Abubakar Mohammed and Saleh Yusuf Adamu have earned a life jail term, while Abdurahman Ado Musa, Mohammed Ibrahim Isa, Ibrahim Ali Alhassan, and Bashir Ali Yusuf got a ten years jail sentence each.

The court document indicated that the suspects between the years 2015 and 2016 were involved in cash transfers to the amount of $782,000 to Boko Haram in Nigeria.

The UAE authorities revealed that the convicts acted contrary to Article 29, Clause 3 of its Federal Anti-Terrorism Law No 7 of 2007.

The investigation authorities of the UAE disclosed they have confirmed involvement and membership of the convicts in the Boko Haram.

The convicts before their trial were arrested between April 16 and 17 in 2017 and after their home thoroughly searched according to the search warrant issued by the National Security Prosecution office dated April 16, 2017.

Accordingly, Abubakar and Adamu were charged for joining Boko Haram knowingly.

This is contrary to Article 22/2 of UAE’s Federal Anti-Terrorism Law No 7 of 2017 punishable by death or life imprisonment.

Alhassan, Musa, Yusuf, and Isa were charged for aiding terrorism knowingly. The crime is punishable by the same law with either life in prison or at least five years jail term.

According to the report, the transactions were mostly facilitated by one, Alhaji Sa’idu, a book Haram Agent-based in Nigeria.

Sa’idu operates such that any unidentified Arab persons on a visit to Dubai from Turkey to hand over US Dollars to one of the convicts, who then remit Naira equivalent to the agent.

However, families of the convict alleged that their brothers were “framed up” insisting that their bureau de change business they do were legitimate ones.