The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, HURIWA has called on the Federal Attorney General and minister of Justice Mr. Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, to make full disclosures to Nigerians the identities and particulars of alleged financiers of terrorism in the Country.
The Rights group in a statement issued on Sunday by its National Coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko, faulted the position of the government that it wouldn’t name and shame the financiers so as not to jeopardise investigation.
HURIWA said the failure of the current government to disclose the identities of the financiers of the terrorists whose activities have led to the killings of over 50,000 citizens over the past decade, amounted to cover-up on the part of the current administration.
The Rights group stated that advanced democracies automatically publish and authorise the release of information on the particulars of offences and the identities of financiers of terrorism as soon as these information is generated and therefore wonders whether Nigeria is an island.
In the statement, Onwubiko expressed worries that the President Bola Tinubu’s administration is adopting the “same archaic, shady and ludicrous pattern adopted by its predecessor which wasted over three years without publishing the names of the financiers of terrorists in Nigeria”.
HURIWA said the federal Attorney General and minister of Justice “got it wrong for failing to give Nigerians the identities of the suspected financiers of terrorism because as far back as 2022, six Nigerians were publicly sanctioned by the United States for raising funds in United Arab Emirates for the terrorist group, Boko Haram, where they were convicted.
The group maintained that Freedom of Information Act is a law of the Federation which obliges the government to provide relevant details of the identities of outlaws and terrorist masterminds.