Group Submits 26-Page Petition To US Govt On Terrorism In Nigeria

The United States-based non-profit group, Global Advocates for Terrorism Eradication (GATE), has petitioned the office of the United States Secretary of State, Antony J. Blinke, demanding that the US should designate some Nigerian government officials, including President Muhammadu Buhari, as sponsors of terrorism.

The group is particularly demanding that the Government of the United States should designate the Nigerian Government as a Sponsor of Terrorism, alleging that “from all available indices, what is happening in Nigeria is State-sponsored Terrorism”.

GATE said its core objectives are to stop the provision of material support, funding and prosecutorial protection of terrorists by state actors.

In an electronic statement sent to our correspondent by its Principal Advocate, Robert Berry, the 26-page petition alleged that the Nigerian government was sponsoring terrorism by carrying out terrorist activities including training, fundraising, financing, and recruitment of terrorists using the shell of their office as Nigerian Government operatives and Nigeria as a safe haven, transit and operational base for terrorists and terrorist activities.

The organization said that “the Nigerian government officials have deployed the instrumentality of power and are using the veil of sovereignty in knowingly consenting and with malicious intent allowing and promoting the use of Nigeria as a breeding ground and recruitment nursery for international terrorism activities contrary to foreign relations authorisations act fiscal years 1988 and 1989 (P.L.100 to 204:22 U.S.C 2656f), as amended.”

The letter chronicles numerous terrorist activities that establish the culpability of the Nigerian govt and its officials.  Some of those acts include providing funds to terrorists and terrorist organizations; providing material support including weapons and equipment to terrorists, actively and expressly encouraging and inciting terrorist activities.

Other allegations against the Nigerian Government are prosecutorial protection to terrorists by directly engaging in acts of terrorism and extrajudicial killings, using the Nigerian Military, Police, and other security agencies.

GATE, in the petition, accused President Muhammadu Buhari, Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State, former Chief of Army Staff and Current Nigerian Ambassador to the Republic of Benin, Tukur Buratai and the Director-General of State Services, Yusuf Magaji Bichi of Aiding Terrorism in Nigeria.

Others accused of Terrorism by GATE are former Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, Governor Hope Uzodinma of Imo State, Ministers of Communications, Justice and Information, Isa Pantami, Abubakar Malami and Lai Mohammed respectively, amongst others.

GATE accuses Buhari of executing a global Jihadist agenda that is comparable, if not more insidious, than the Taliban of Afghanistan, urging the US Government to kick start the statutory process and legal instruments of holding the Nigerian Government Officials accountable for their high crimes of sponsoring international terrorism.

The Group gave notice of two-month deadline to the United States Government, warning that “if at the expiration of the two months deadline, and the designation is not made, GATE will proceed to the Federal Court in the United States to apply for a Writ of Mandamus to compel the United States Secretary of State to issue the designation in line with the provisions of Law”

GATE opined that the US Government designating Nigerian officials as sponsors of terrorism will have far-reaching legal implications, including potentially arrest and criminal prosecution in a federal US court if they visit the country.