The violent sect, Boko Haram and other groups in
northern Nigeria received $3m from Osama bin
Laden in 2002, according to a report by some
United States intelligence analysts.
Bin Laden was said to have dispatched an aide to
Nigeria to hand out the seed money in naira to a
wide array of Salafist political organisations that
shared al Qaeda’s goal of imposing Islamic rule.
According to a report in a United States-based
newspaper, The Daily Beast, the Al-Qaeda founder
helped provide Boko Haram’s seed money.
Boko Haram was founded by Mohammed Yusuf in
2002. Yusuf was killed in police custody in 2009.
The Daily Beast reported on Sunday that officially,
the U.S. intelligence community believed that the
sect had only tangential links to al Qaeda’s North
African affiliate, and that reports of bin Laden
backing the Nigerian outfit were off-base, but
many analysts have believed that the ties
between Boko Haram and al Qaeda global
leadership go much deeper—and are about more
than a little seed money.
“There were channels between bin laden and Boko
Haram leadership,” one senior U.S. intelligence
offical told The Daily Beast, adding that “He gave
some strategic direction at times.”
A comprehensive report on Boko Haram published
by the International Crisis Group, also confirmed
that Boko Haram’s early leader, Mohammed
Yusuf, received some seed money from a disciple
of Osama bin Laden named Mohammed Ali in
2002.
The report added that bin Laden got to know Ali
in the 1990s when he was based in Sudan,
adding that after Ali travelled with bin Laden to
Afghanistan, he was provided with $3m in
Nigerian currency in 2002 and sent to the north of
the country to fund a wide array of Salafist
political organisations to help spread al-Qaeda’s
ideology.
Ali then became involved in the Nigeria’s Muslim
insurgency but was eventually killed.
[Sources: Daily Beast, NAN, Punch NG]
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