By Jeremy Fregene
Human rights lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Femi Falana, has written a blistering petition to the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), demanding the immediate prosecution of 10 Nigerian soldiers accused of killing three police officers and 400 alleged financiers of terrorism, accusing the immediate past Attorney General, Abubakar Malami, SAN, of deliberately shielding the suspects from justice.
Copies of the letter were also forwarded to the National Security Adviser, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu.
Falana, writing on behalf of a coalition of legal practitioners committed to human rights and public accountability, said the failure to prosecute the suspects has gravely undermined Nigeria’s counter-terrorism efforts and emboldened those funding and perpetrating violence across the country.
According to the letter, the 10 soldiers were accused of ambushing and killing three police officers in August 2019 in Jalingo, Taraba State, after the officers arrested a notorious kidnap kingpin, Bala Hamisu, popularly known as Wadume. Falana alleged that the killings were carried out to protect Wadume and conceal the soldiers’ alleged involvement in kidnapping operations and the collection of billions of naira in ransom.
Falana stated that the soldiers were arrested and charged with terrorism at the Federal High Court in Abuja, but the charges were later withdrawn after the former AGF filed a nolle prosequi, leading to their discharge.
He described the withdrawal of the charges as a “gross abuse of power” and a clear violation of Section 174(3) of the 1999 Constitution, which mandates the AGF to act in the public interest, in the interest of justice, and to prevent abuse of legal process.
“The cold-blooded murder of police officers on official duty was designed to cover up the involvement of the soldiers in several killings and illegal collection of ransom by kidnappers who terrorised Taraba State for years,” Falana wrote.
He said repeated demands for the re-arrest and prosecution of the soldiers were ignored by the Federal Government.
Beyond the soldiers’ case, Falana drew attention to what he described as a far more dangerous and far-reaching cover-up involving 400 individuals accused of financing terrorism, most of them Bureau de Change operators allegedly linked to Boko Haram.
He said the suspects were arrested and investigated by a joint team of the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) and the Department of State Services (DSS) following international pressure generated by the prosecution of six Nigerians in the United Arab Emirates in 2020 for funding Boko Haram.
In that case, Falana noted, two Nigerians were sentenced to life imprisonment while four others received 10-year jail terms after being found guilty of transferring $782,000 from Dubai to Nigeria for terrorist activities.
According to Falana, the successful UAE prosecutions prompted Nigerian authorities to conduct a nationwide operation which led to the arrest of about 400 terror financiers. In May 2021, Malami publicly announced the arrests and promised that the suspects would be prosecuted once the judicial workers’ strike ended.
However, Falana said that despite the strike being called off shortly afterward, no charges were filed, and the suspects were quietly shielded from prosecution.
He accused Malami of making repeated public assurances without taking concrete action, noting that by the time the former AGF left office in May 2023, none of the financiers had been brought before a court.
“The powerful suspects have since regained their freedom to continue their nefarious business of funding terrorism in Nigeria,” Falana alleged, adding that the case files of the 400 financiers were abandoned at the Federal Ministry of Justice.
He rejected arguments previously advanced by Malami against “naming and shaming” suspects, insisting that prosecution, not media silence, is the true test of constitutionalism and commitment to justice.
Falana argued that if the financiers had been prosecuted and their assets confiscated, Nigeria’s armed forces would have been better equipped to fight insurgency and banditry.
He stressed that terrorism offences are not subject to any statute of limitation, urging the current AGF to immediately order the re-arrest and prosecution of both the 10 soldiers and the 400 alleged terror financiers in the overriding interest of national security.
“The war on terror cannot be won while those who finance and protect terrorists are treated with kid gloves,” Falana warned.
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