Banditry, kidnapping will end in 2022 – Intelligence agency

• Sept. 15 projected as Boko Haram terminal date

The Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU), Mr Modibbo Tukur, has disclosed that Nigeria will no longer experience banditry and kidnapping by April 2022.

The NFIU is an autonomous unit, domiciled within the Central Bank of Nigeria and the central coordinating body for the country’s Anti-Money Laundering, Counter-Terrorist Financing and Counter-Proliferation Financing (AML/CFT/CPF) framework.

Speaking at a 3-day capacity building workshop on anti-money laundering and combatting the financing of terrorism in Abuja on Tuesday, the NFIU’s CEO said; “The terminal date for kidnapping and banditry is March/April 2022.”

Mr Tukur said the projection was arrived at following an analysis by the agency, adding that the same system was used to project the downfall of the Boko Haram terrorist group.

He said September 15, 2021, was projected to be the terminal date for the Boko Haram terrorists in Nigeria which he claimed was achieved.

He disclosed that the organisation had designed a project that is helping it to identify the financial sources of terrorists in the country and how money is moved for the purpose of terrorism.

Tukur said the programme to end Boko Haram was started in January 2021 when a team of experts was assembled and put to work.

While noting that the project was able to put the number of active Boko Haram fighters at around 15,000, he said recently, over 14,000 of them surrendered.

According to him, following the success of the programme to cripple financial flows to the Boko Haram terrorists, the Northeastern part of the country is now safer than the North West and North Central which are being terrorised by bandits and kidnappers.

He said the feat in the North East was achieved with the collaboration of other government agencies, adding that all data generating organisations in Nigeria were linked with the NFIU except the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.