Senator Ali Ndume, representing Borno South wants the Federal Government to look into serious claims that United States Agency for International Development USAID funded Boko Haram and other terrorist groups.
The story began when US Congressman, Scott Perry from Pennsylvania said during a government meeting that $697 million in US aid money was going to terrorist groups like Boko Haram, ISIS, and Al-Qaeda. Perry also claimed that $136 million meant to build schools in Pakistan showed no results.
“You can’t say it’s just an allegation; it’s more than that,” said Senator Ali Ndume, who represents Borno South, an area heavily affected by Boko Haram attacks. “That’s why the Nigerian government and the National Assembly, especially, need to look into it to investigate and verify the veracity of such a very weighty allegation,” Ndume said whilst speaking on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics.
Explaining why this matters so much, Ndume said: “This development is very worrisome, especially because one of the terrorist organisations mentioned by Scott Perry is Boko Haram, and Boko Haram has ravaged not only the North-East but even other parts of Nigeria. You can remember Boko Haram bombed the police headquarters and the UN office in Abuja, and the casualties were enormous. So, the Nigerian government must be interested.”
The senator mentioned that Nigerian security agencies have had concerns about aid organisations before. He pointed to past incidents where officials raided USAID and UN offices in Maiduguri and another case where an aid group was suspected of giving weapons for training. “We have been wondering for all these years where these people are getting money,” Ndume added.
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