They Wanted to Silence Me” — Ali-Keffi Exposes Forced Retirement, Offshore Millions, and Sabotaged Terrorism Case
They Wanted to Silence Me” — Ali-Keffi Exposes Forced Retirement, Offshore Millions, and Sabotaged Terrorism Case
Arrest, Detention, and Forced Retirement
Ali-Keffi said he was suddenly summoned to the Headquarters of Military Police on October 18, 2021, detained for 64 days, “never charged, never queried, and never tried by any military or civil court before being compulsorily retired.”
He added: “Till today, I don’t know my offence,” and described his detention as a coordinated attempt to stop the terrorism-financing probe.
He noted that no action was taken on his petition to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu seeking redress, which pushed him to go public and file a case at the National Industrial Court.
Ali-Keffi said: “the court has not sat even once, claiming that court processes were not served on the Nigerian Army, adding that my lawyer strongly suspects ‘foul play.’”
Offshore Accounts and Attempted Bribe
One international suspect, Aboubacar Hima, was found to own an offshore account containing about $600 million, traced by OSW via the NFIU.
Ali-Keffi said: “I was later told by the then-NFIU boss that someone acting for Hima offered $50 million for Nigeria to inform the US that it had ‘no issues’ with the funds, effectively unfreezing the account. I rejected the offer.”
He added: “Upon my release from detention, I was informed that the Nigerian government eventually wrote to the US requesting that the account be unfrozen. According to him, Buhari told the NFIU boss to ‘reconcile with Malami’ over their ‘differences.’
Investigation Obstructed, Suspects Released
Ali-Keffi said OSW had evidence for terrorism-financing charges against 48 suspects but faced persistent pressure to downgrade the charges to money laundering.
He alleged: “After my release from detention, I was told by Hamman-Tukur Ribadu that the Nigerian Government wrote to the US to unfreeze the account. Let me state that in the course of the investigation, sometime in August or September 2021, Abubakar removed one of the top prosecution lawyers who was assisting the OSW to build up the case without any explanation to me. I later learned that she refused to compromise her stance, which was that we (OSW) had sufficient evidence to present in court on charges of terrorism financing against all the 48 suspects that were in OSW custody. I recall that I stated in my letter of redress that pressure was being mounted on me to build a case of money laundering against the individuals and not terrorism financing. I suspected that the powers-that-be at the time wanted the case to be transferred to the EFCC, which is under the control of the Attorney General. The Chairman at the time was Mr Bawa, a relative of Malami. They wanted to ‘kill’ the investigation but my insistence and that of the lady from the AGF office, who was removed, made the Presidency to go after me by getting the Army to come up with trumped-up allegations against me.”
He added: “I understand that the 20 suspects were never charged or taken to court. They were all released. I was made to understand from an insider that they (the suspects before they were released) were warned not to go to the media, or to go to the court as a result of their detention for over nine months. NFIU was pressured to drop the accusation of terrorism financing.”
