This is contained in a leaked memo obtained by SaharaReporters on Tuesday, directing all officials to casually observe the suspect.
The National Headquarters of the Secret Service (NHSS), otherwise known as the Department of State Services (DSS) in November 2023 downgraded the status of a suspected terrorist identified as Ibrahim Musa on its watchlist.
This is contained in a leaked memo obtained by SaharaReporters on Tuesday, directing all officials to casually observe the suspect.
The memo dated 15/11/2023 and signed by Adeola D. Ali for NISEC NHSS reads, “DSE. 9A/5457 X DOWNGRADING OF WATCHLIST ACTION X EYE A M DIRECTED TO INFO YOURS THAT X THE DGSS HAS APPROVED THE DOWNGRADING OF WATCHLIST ACTION 'A' (SUSPECTED TERRORIST) AGAINST IBRAHIM MUSA (PPT NO: A03125224) X TO WLA 'R' (CASUAL OBSERVATION) WITH IMMEDIATE EFFECT X THIS IS FOR YOUR STRICT COMPLIANCE X PLEASE.”
Meanwhile, last week, SaharaReporters reported that a leaked memo from the secret police had ordered the arrest of the convener of the #RevolutionNow Movement, Omoyele Sowore.
Sowore was briefly detained by the officials of the Immigration Service on Sunday when he landed at Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos after landing in Nigeria from the US, where he had been with his family.
In April 2019, six Nigerians were convicted by an Abu Dhabi Federal Court of Appeal in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) over the funding of Boko Haram.
Two of the convicts, Surajo Abubakar Muhammad and Saleh Yusuf Adamu were sentenced to life imprisonment while the remaining four, Ibrahim Ali Alhassan, AbdurRahman Ado Musa, Bashir Ali Yusuf and Muhammad Ibrahim Isa were each handed ten-year imprisonment.
The men were convicted in the UAE of attempting to send $782,000 from Dubai to Nigeria.
In December 2019, a UAE Federal Supreme Court also turned down an appeal by the convicts.
In March 2022, the US imposed sanctions on the six Nigerian nationals found guilty of setting up a Boko Haram cell in the UAE.
“With this action, the United States joins the UAE in targeting terrorist financing networks of mutual concern,” Under-Secretary of the Treasury Brian Nelson said in a report published by Al Jazeera.
“Treasury continues to target financial facilitators of terrorist activity worldwide. We welcome multilateral action on this Boko Haram network to ensure that it is not able to move any further funds through the international financial system,” he added.
“All property and interests in property of the individuals named above, and of any entities that are owned, directly or indirectly, 50 percent or more by them, individually, or with other blocked persons, that are in the United States or in the possession or control of US persons, must be blocked and reported to OFAC,” the Treasury said in a statement.
The US officially designated Boko Haram a “foreign terrorist group” in 2013. According to the State Department, the group is “responsible for numerous attacks in the northern and northeastern regions of the country, as well as in the Lake Chad Basin in Cameroon, Chad and Niger that have killed thousands of people since 2009”.
In March 2021, then Senior Special Assistant to then President Muhammadu Buhari on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, said the Nigerian Government had arrested some Bureau De Change operators who were facilitating the transfer of money to Boko Haram terrorists.
He had said some Nigerians transferring money to the sect from the UAE were working with the BDC operators.
“Bureau de change are facilitating money to terrorists. We have already worked with the UAE. Convictions have been achieved of Nigerians who are transferring money to Boko Haram terrorists and this also happens domestically. And I tell you that by the time we finish this investigation, the shocking details will surprise many Nigerians,” Shehu said.
“Dozens of persons have been arrested by security agents in an ongoing nationwide crackdown on suspected financiers and collaborators of Boko Haram.”