The founder of the Community Development and Rights Advocacy Foundation, Steven Kefas, has alleged that about three trailer-loads of Lakurawa fighters infiltrated Sokoto State from the Sahel region through Niger in August last year without any intervention by authorities.
Naijaonpoint reports that Kefas made the allegation on Thursday while speaking on Politics Today, a programme aired on Channels Television.
According to the activist, the influx of foreign fighters is sustained by funds generated through kidnapping and ransom payments, which are allegedly channelled directly into arms procurement.
He said a close associate who spent about four months in captivity and was released in October last year disclosed that arms suppliers often arrive at terrorist camps on the same day ransom payments are delivered.
He explained that the revelation showed kidnapping had become a deliberate means of raising funds to acquire weapons, warning that the trend suggested insecurity could persist for a long time if not urgently addressed.
Kefas further alleged that fighters continued to enter Nigeria from neighbouring countries such as Mali and Niger, while ransom payments provided a steady source of funding for weapons, enabling terrorist groups to expand their operations.
According to him, the continued inflow of fighters and arms has strengthened criminal networks and contributed to the spread of insecurity into states previously considered relatively safe, including Kwara State and Kogi State.
Raising further concerns, Kefas alleged targeted attacks and land occupation in parts of Kaduna State, particularly Kajuru Local Government Area.
He cited the recent abduction of about 177 worshippers from churches on a Sunday, as well as previous incidents in which people were killed during church services.
Kefas added that nearly 40 communities in Kajuru Local Government Area had been displaced, with some allegedly occupied by terrorists.
Kefas said, “In July, a very close friend of mine spent four months in captivity. He was released in November, October, early October, last year. And when he was released, he told me so many things. One of them was that the very day they are coming to pay your ransom.
“That same day, you have suppliers of arms who have brought arms into the camp, and then the ransom will be used to pay them for the arms.
“It means that the kidnapping that is going on is to raise funds to acquire more arms. It means there’s no end in sight. It means this criminality, this terrorism, is not going to end anytime soon. Because I was wondering what do these terrorists do with this money.
“Because they don’t look good, they don’t, they don’t build houses, they don’t have cars. But he answered my question when he was released. I debriefed him for three hours, and he told me that any day there’s a ransom payment on that camp, somebody is bringing arms to supply to the terrorists.”
When asked if the terrorists are building their own army or militia, Kefas said, “Obviously that is what it means, because in August last year, I reported that about three trailer loads of Lakurawa fighters came in from the Sahel, from Niger to Sokoto state.
“Nobody did anything about it. So these fighters keep coming in, or these terrorists keep coming in, whether from Mali, whether from Niger, and then you already have a system where funds are acquired through ransom payment, and then they use it to acquire more arms.
“So we don’t know what the future holds, because they believe that they are building a stronger network, and that is why it is spreading. You could see Kwara state, Kogi state, don’t use to be in this conversation, but now you have such activities going on there.
“It is a complex issue that the government is not really handling properly, and then talking about whether it’s targeted, I believe it is also targeted. How do you explain that on a Sunday, 177 people have been taken away from their churches, and in the same Kajuru in July last year, three people were killed during an attack while they were in the church.
“So how do you explain it and the issue of land grabbing? It is true, there are communities, almost 40 communities, the last time I counted, in Kajuru local government area, that have been displaced, some of them occupied by these terrorists.”