The Federal Government has disclosed that it will reveal to the French Government account details of the sponsors of terrorist group, Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB). It was learnt that the Federal Government had asked the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit and the Central Bank of Nigeria to compile the needed information on the sponsors and hand it over to the French government.
According to a report by Punch, The French Government has reached out to the FG over IPOB, requesting for account details and any other evidence showing that France was where the majority of IPOB’s funds was coming from.
“So, the government has accepted that challenge and we will be instructing the NFIU, SCUML and the CBN to hand over all the details of IPOB’s funding to us in one comprehensive report which will be submitted to the French Government.
“Since IPOB has been declared a terrorist organisation by a court in Nigeria, the French Government, which claims to be against Nigeria’s break-up, is expected to give us maximum cooperation.”
Initially, the FG had said that France was IPOB’s headquarters but the French government said it had no knowledge of IPOB’s presence in France. This prompted Nigeria to explain that it wasn’t accusing France of being a sponsor of IPOB but that a large transfer of funds were made regularly to IPOB in Nigeria from France, as well as from Turkey, Senegal, Malaysia, Hong Kong, United Kingdom and the United States.
