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Ali Ndume, a legislator from the Borno South Senatorial District, has requested that the Federal Government look into a claim made by US Congressman Scott Perry that Boko Haram and other terrorist groups were financed by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

“You can’t say it’s just an allegation; it’s more than that,” the former Chairman of the Senate Committee on Army said on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics programme.

“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.”

Given the suspicions that foreign humanitarian organizations operating in Nigeria’s insurgent-ridded North-East zone were sponsoring terrorist activities, the lawmaker, who has served in the National Assembly for more than 20 consecutive years, said the Nigerian government should be interested in the US congressman’s revelation.

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.

“I’m worried, but the Nigerian security agencies have raised this indirectly several times. Even the Borno State government was wary of the operations of the NGOs.

“I remember during the period of (Lieutenant General Tukur) Buratai, the Nigerian Army got intelligence and even raided the office of USAID or United Nations in Maiduguri. There was also a time when the governor got intelligence and security agencies raided one NGO that was providing training to some of their staff on how to use guns.

“We have been wondering for all these years where these people are getting money.”

In the almost 20 years since the terror war began in Borno, Yobe, and Adamawa states in Nigeria’s insurgent-prone North-East region, the All Progressives Congress (APC) lawmaker added that millions of people have been displaced and over 50,000 have been slain.

Ndume went on to say that rather than accepting humanitarian aid, Nigeria ought to be providing it to other nations.

“This issue of relying on aid from other countries is not even good for us because Nigeria, by now, is supposed to be the one that is giving out aid and not receiving aid,” he said.

“This is like a wake-up for all of us in government. We have everything; the only problem is the leadership. We need to fix that so that we’ll tap into what we have and be content.”

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