Former Sector Commander of Operation Safe Haven, Maj-Gen Anthony Atolagbe, rtd, says there is a mega sponsorship for Boko Haram from within and outside Nigeria.
Atolagbe made this assertion on Wednesday when he appeared as a guest in an interview on Arise Television’s ‘Prime Time’.
He said that the Starlink the bandits use for communication might not have been procured in Nigeria.
He added that terrorism and banditry go beyond the Nigerian enclave, stressing the need for collaborations to find lasting solutions.
“There is a mega sponsorship for Boko Haram from within and outside Nigeria. If we are to now digress and go into that particular area, we should now be thinking about where they are being funded.
And then, when you talk about people being funded, certainly we are talking about something bigger than what we can just imagine. So, they are not only in Nigeria.
“A lot of people have been identified, okay, and we now see a mega kind of sponsorship that is being carried out by these people.
“What actually is happening is that I just gave you an example of the Starlink. They might not even have been procured in Nigeria, but brought in from outside and then distributed to them so that they can use them for communication.
So, now what we find out is that it actually goes beyond what is within the Nigerian enclave alone.
“We are talking about a counter-terror action that is being led by the UN, keyed into by AU, by ECOWAS, and all the other countries that are finding themselves under this kind of terror situation also have to key in so that everyone can work in collaboration, and then you can find a lasting solution to the problem,” he said.
