However, President Goodluck Jonathan appears to have kept mute on the subject.
At a time the president cried out that the sect had infiltrated his government.
To many, the Amnesty International’s report titled: “Nigeria: More than 1,500 killed in Armed Conflict in North-Eastern Nigeria in early 2014” should make the Presidency reveal the identity of the financiers.
The general feeling is that it is incumbent on Mr. President to expose anyone linked with the group.
A security source, who preferred anonymity, said the Presidency may have chosen to be careful because of how highly connected these people are.
Another reason the source gave was Mr. President’s ambition, which naming these people may put in jeopardy.
“He (Mr. President) needs to be careful because you are dealing with a high calibre of people, highly connected and we know what this may cause his ambition,” the source said.
He also cited the technicality in case of the suspended governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, who was allegedly linked or being suspected as a major financier of the dreaded sect.
Managing Partner, US Nigeria Law Group (USNLG), Emmanuel Ogebe, told Sunday Independent that it is absolutely imperative that the Presidency names the financiers of Boko Haram and face the consequence.
“Not only that they are named, but that they are incarcerated and prosecuted. What is happening now is that because of impunity for Boko Haram attacks, other extremists are now inspired to kill and settle scores with people they resent.
“There needs to be zero tolerance for terrorism, because, when one suicide bomber kills 100 people, and that loss is sustainable, you will lose massive numbers of your population to very few attackers,” he noted.
Continuing, he alleged that “Iran shipped arms into Nigeria. There have been no consequences. So did Hizbollah.
“Now, Turkish Airlines is alleged to have flown arms into Nigeria. Nigeria should ban its flight operations into the country until this is fully resolved.
“The current massive losses are completely untenable. There needs to be a major clamp down, but only on genuine perpetrators and sponsors.
“A situation where the ruling party blames terrorism on the opposition is untenable and highly unfortunate.”
Ogebe also noted that political calculations must not take pre-eminence over a threat of existential proportions to the Nigerian nation.
He said, “The survival of Nigeria is greater than anyone’s ambition. Apart from local political intrigues, the president must not allow himself be misled by certain uninformed segments of the international community who claim this is an economic war.
President of the United Nations (UN) Security Council for the month of April, Joy Ogwu, said that members of the Security Council underlined the need to bring perpetrators, organisers, financiers and sponsors of these reprehensible acts of terrorism to justice.
She urged all states, in accordance with their obligations under international law and relevant Security Council resolutions, to cooperate actively with the Nigerian authorities to fight terrorism.
For many security experts, since the Boko Haram case is not that of a guerilla warfare, the need for a more effective synergy between all the security forces through information gathering and intelligence sharing is a tool that is needed to unsettle the insurgents.
Also of utmost importance, according to them is the need for neighbouring countries like Cameroon, Niger and Chad to collaborate with the Nigerian Government in its efforts in tackling the scourge of terrorism.
Security expert, Ifeanyi Okoro, stressed the need for the FG to monitor the flow of funds to Boko Haram.
“We need to ask the Nigerian government: Is anyone following the money? For terrorism to succeed on the scale at which Boko Haram is operating, it requires funding.
“Where is the money coming from? How much of it is local, and how much international? How is it being passed around?” he queried.
For renowned security expert, Ona Ekhomu, security agencies should conduct behavioural analyses of Boko Haram terrorists to help them predict how future attacks would done in order to prevent these tragic attacks.
He stressed that such behavioural analysis would provide a thorough insight into the mind, phenomenology, idiosyncrasies and patterned-behaviors of sociopathic and psychopathic serial insurgents to meet extant challenges.
Meanwhile, a 28-minute video released by the Boko Haram sect, although made no reference to the abductions from the Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok, but the military, local officials and girls who have escaped have blamed that attack on Boko Haram.
In a related development, Boko Haram has claimed responsibility for last week’s attack on a bus station in Abuja, believed to be the deadliest attack ever in Nigeria’s capital. The revelation was made in a video obtained Saturday, even as the search continued for 85 school girls still missing after a mass abduction by the Islamists.
The bombing at a bus station packed with morning commuters early on Monday killed at least 75 people on the outskirts of Abuja, hours before gunmen kidnapped 129 girls from a school in North-Eastern Borno State, Boko Haram’s base.
Officials said a total of 44 have since escaped and are now safe.
“We are the ones that carried out the attack in Abuja,” Boko Haram’s leader, Abubakar Shekau, said in video message obtained by AFP. “We are in your city but you don’t know where we are.”
Shekau, declared a global terrorist by the United States, which has a $7 million (5.1 million Euro) bounty on his head, spoke in Arabic and the Hausa language that is dominant in northern Nigeria.
The 28-minute video made no reference to the abductions from the Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok, but the military, local officials and girls who have escaped have blamed that attack on Boko Haram.
Borno’s Education Commissioner, Inua Kubo, told journalists late on Friday that 14 more girls had been found, leaving 85 girls still missing.
Some girls had escaped immediately after the kidnapping, jumping off the back of a truck as the Islamists tried to cart them away under the cover of darkness.
It was not yet clear how the latest group managed to flee, but Kubo said 11 were found in a town on the road that connects Chibok to Borno’s capital Maiduguri, and three others had fled back to their school.
Some of those who escaped earlier this week said the hostages were taken to the Sambisa Forest area, where Boko Haram is known to have well fortified camps.
The military said it had launched a major search and rescue operation, but some in the region say they have lost confidence in the security forces after the defence ministry issued an erroneous report claiming that most of the girls were safe.
That statement, issued late on Wednesday, said all but eight of those abducted were free, but defence spokesman Chris Olukolade was forced to withdraw the report on Friday after it turned out to be inaccurate.
Meanwhile, parents have been scouring the bushland for days looking for the hostages, pooling money to buy fuel for motorcycles and vehicles to help with the search.
One father said he and others decided to turn back after locals told them the insurgents were nearby and were prepared to slaughter anyone who advanced further.
“If we were armed as they are we would surely go…and face them,” said Enoch Mark, whose daughter and two nieces were among those taken.
Boko Haram, which says it wants to create an Islamic state in northern Nigeria, is blamed for killing thousands since 2009.
The group’s name loosely translates as “Western education is forbidden,” and attacks targeting schools and universities have been a prominent feature of the five-year uprising.
Students have been massacred while sleeping in their dormitories, but a mass abduction specifically targeting girls is unprecedented.
A security source said there were indications that the Islamists have used female hostages as both sex slaves and cooks.
Boko Haram has categorically ruled out peace negotiations and backed away from several ceasefire offers, but Mark nevertheless pleaded with the insurgents to show compassion.
“We call on Boko Haram to release our daughters who have committed no offence against anyone,” he said.
Meanwhile the Commissioner of Education in Borno State, Musa Inuwa Kubo, announced the return of one of the girls that had been declared missing during the abduction on Saturday.
Although, it was not ascertained if she was one of the girls abducted, she is one of 129 that were in the hostel on the day the mass abduction occurred at the Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok.
This brings to 45, the number of girls that have returned, with 84 more still unaccounted for.
In another development, anti-Bomb squads, spy detectives, policemen and fully armed soldiers have taken over strategic locations and areas of Lagos state, in a move by the government to ensure safety of lives and properties of its citizens.
Sunday Independent’s checks showed that the Murtala Mohammed Airport, Seme border and the Ikeja City Mall (ICM), which houses Shoprite and over 100 other stores and the Tafawa Balewa Square (TBS), are among the areas where security has been beefed up.
This development is coming on the heels of the Nyanya bus station blast last Monday which claimed over 75 lives, injured about 150 persons with about 30 vehicles destroyed.
The state government, to avoid being taken unawares by any eventuality, has put law enforcement officers on standby to forestall any acts of terrorism that could compromise the safety residents of the state have enjoyed till now.
At the local wing of the Murtala Mohammed Airport, there was traffic at the entrance as vehicles dropping off passengers were subjected to checks by policemen with anti-bomb equipment one after the other.
Source: Daily Independent
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