FG Shielding Boko Haram Sponsors, Says Ex-Military Intelligence

Former Navy Commodore and member of the Military Intelligence team in 2017, Kunle Olawunmi, Wednesday hinted that the Federal Government knows those behind the decade-long Boko Haram insurgency in the country.

Olawunmi’s remarks are the latest in the continued debate about how Nigeria can end the Boko Haram war, which has led to thousands of deaths and displaced millions especially in the North-East and some neighbouring countries.

While the military says the on-going onslaught against the terrorists has yielded results and the criminals surrendering in droves, calls for granting amnesty to some of the “repentant” members of the sect have also divided opinions among stakeholders.

Advocates, citing the amnesty programme of late President Musa Yar’Adua to ex-Niger Delta militants, say it will bring peace to the troubled North-East.

Speaking during an interview on Channels Television’s ‘Sunrise Daily’, Olawunmi, who is a Professor of Intelligence and Global Security Studies, said: “They (government) know them. Of course, it is in the news.

“In April this year, the government said they had arrested 400 Bureau De Change (BDCs)-related people that were sponsoring Boko Haram. They told us.”

The Presidency had earlier said it would publish names of those behind the Boko Haram war with the development generating heated controversy across the country.

But months down the line, the long awaited list is yet to be made public, a situation the ex-military officer says does not go well for the government, whom he accused of shielding criminals.

Olawunmi, who once served a security and intelligence brief at the Defence Headquarters between 2016 and 2017, corroborated calls from several quarters for the Federal Government to make good its promise.