Six Nigerians have been convicted by an Abu Dhabi Federal Court of Appeal in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for allegedly funding Boko Haram.
They were convicted of wiring $782,000.00 to the fundamentalists, who have been fighting to overthrow the government and install an Islamist form of government, Daily Post reported Monday.
The appellate court upheld their conviction after they lost an earlier appeal at a lower court.
Two of the convicts, Surajo Abubakar Muhammad and Saleh Yusuf Adamu were sentenced to life imprisonment.
Others, Ibrahim Ali Alhassan, AbdurRahman Ado Musa, Bashir Ali Yusuf and Muhammad Ibrahim Isa, were sentenced to ten-year imprisonment, each.
According to Court documents, the convicts between 2015 and 2016, were allegedly involved in cash transfers totalling $782,000.00 to Boko Haram.
The act was contrary to Article 29, Clause 3 of UAE’s Federal Anti-Terrorism Law No 7 of 2017, according to the ruling.
The National Security Bureau said investigation of the Nigerians “confirmed their involvement and membership of the Boko Haram”.
The six men were arrested between April 16 and 17, 2017, and their homes searched according to the search warrant issued by the National Security Prosecution office dated April 16, 2017.
Two of them, Abubakar and Adamu, were charged for joining Boko Haram knowingly.
Their action was a contravention of Article 22/2 of UAE’s Federal Anti-Terrorism Law No 7 of 2017 punishable by death or life imprisonment.
The other four, Alhassan, Musa, Yusuf and Isa were charged with assisting the sect knowingly.
The crime, under Article 31, Clause 1 of the same law, is punishable by life imprisonment or at least five years in jail.
Most of the transactions were facilitated by two undercover Boko Haram agents based in Nigeria. One of them is “Alhaji Sa’idu”.
The other “Alhaji Ashiru” was described as “a Nigerian government official”, without further elaboration.
He also allegedly funnelled misappropriated public funds to terrorists.
Sa’idu’s modus operandi is using unidentified Arab persons on a visit to Dubai from Turkey to hand over US Dollars to one of the convicts, who then remits the Naira equivalent to the agent.
However, the families of the convicts say they were “framed up”, insisting their bureau de change business in the UAE was legitimate.
