A religious group in Nigeria is helping terrorists to launder money, says the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.

The anti-graft agency boss, Ola Olukoyede, did not name the religious body while narrating on Wednesday how some terror financiers got a court restraining order that prevented the EFCC from investigating the group’s alleged funding of terrorism in Nigeria. 

Mr Olukoyede said the EFCC had informed the religious group of its unlawful operations after learning about how money was laundered for terrorists.

“A religious sect in this country had been found to be laundering money for terrorists. We were able to trace some laundered money to a religious organisation,” said the EFCC at the Musa Yar’Adua Centre in Abuja at an anti-corruption event. 

He added, “And when we approached the religious organisation about it and we were carrying out our investigation, we got a restraining order stopping us from carrying out our investigation.”

In September 2021, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia reportedly listed six Nigerians on their terror list. This list included financiers of terrorism. 

The Gulf country had also convicted six other Nigerians indicted for funding Boko-Haram, a dreaded group raining terror in Nigeria, in 2021. 

West African Sub-regional body, ECOWAS’ Inter-Governmental Action Group against Money Laundering in West Africa (GIABA) in 2019 reported that the Islamic State’s West Africa Province (ISWAP) moved about N18 billion generated from trading and taxing communities in the Lake Chad region through the Nigerian financial system annually.

During his reign, then-EFCC boss Abdulrasheed Bawa declined to comment on the names of individuals charged with financing terrorism. 

He claimed that he is not in the greatest position to identify Nigerians who may be funding terrorists.