Terrorism Financing: Group Warns Against Media Trial

A northern-based group, the Concerned Civil Society Network, has expressed concern over the fate of the detained publisher of Kaduna-based Desert Herald Newspaper, Tukur Mamu, in the custody of the Department of State Services.

The organisation also decried the media trial of Mamu, noting that the “Nigerian Sanctions Committee lacked the statutory mandate to pronounce on, and to designate him (Mamu) as terrorists’ financier.”

The Federal Government had recently unveiled the identity of 15 entities, including nine individuals, among them, Mamu and six Bureau De Change operators and firms, allegedly involved in terrorism financing.

Details of the development were revealed by the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit, in an email sent to The PUNCH entitled “Designation of Individuals and Entities for March 18, 2024.”

Mamu’s counsel kicked against the list and threatened litigation if not retracted.

The organisation’s convener, Bako Usman, while addressing a press conference in Kaduna, said the continued detention of Mamu since 2022 in the DSS facility was worrisome.

According to him, it is degrading for the Federal Government to designate Mamu, a media consultant to Kaduna-based Islamic cleric, Sheikh Ahmad Gumi, as terrorists financier.

He said, “We, as concerned civil society organisation, have decided to speak up after a long season of silence in the face of an attempt to deny most Nigerians their fundamental human right by forces that be as Tukur Mamu is equally not an exception.

“It is almost two years now that the publisher, a journalist, and most of all, a Nigerian who was arrested and incarcerated for crimes bothering on sponsorship of terrorism. Ordinarily, our organisation would not have spoken out, but recent events have pushed us to.

“First, we are appalled at the attempt to use media as the staging ground to tell the world that the publisher of Desert Herald Newspaper, Mallam Tukur Mamu, is one of the financiers of terrorism.

“In recent times, Mamu’s health has deteriorated to a worrisome dimension with life-threatening alignments. This much was ascertained by the DSS themselves, but they refused him access to proper medical treatment or allow his personal doctor to have access to him.

“Courts of competent jurisdiction had ruled that Mamu should as a matter of urgency be allowed to access his doctors for urgent medical treatment, the Federal Government refused.”