British MP Confirms Boko Haram-Sponsor Organisation

Eight months after a United Kingdom- based charity organisation, Al-Muntada Trust Fund, was accused by the State Security Service of funding the Islamic sect, Boko Haram, the charity group has come under UK’s probe after a British member of parliament accused the trust of funding the Nigerian sect.

The probe was announced in a report published in the British newspaper, The Guardian on Sunday.

It said that David Alton, a member of the House of Lords, raised concerns about the Al-Muntada Trust Fund’s activities with Foreign Office minister Lord Howell in July, as well as with the United Kingdom’s Charity Commission and the Metropolitan police.

However the Charity Commission was quoted by the paper as stating that while they are aware of concerns regarding Al-Muntada’s affiliations with Boko Haram, they were unable to confirm whether those concerns are directly related to the London-based Al-Muntada, since there are several other charity organisations registered under the same name.

The report said the London-based Al-Muntada is notorious for being a platform for radical clerics, and that Nigerian state security also has concerns with Al-Muntada allegedly funding Boko Haram.

Last February, the State Security Service, SSS, aided by other agencies were shocked to discover that Boko Haram actually received funding from a UK organisation and others in the Middle East.

Arrested leaders of the sect allegedly opened up on the sponsors. The leaders were said to have revealed that while the group got funding in its earlier days from al Qeada, its links with Al-Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) opened it to funding from groups in Saudi Arabia and the UK.

The UK group, Al-Muntada Trust Fund,was specifically named as a Boko Haram financier by the SSS. Other Islamic organisations were also named as the group’s financiers, including Islamic World Society with headquarters in Saudi Arabia.

Members of the sect allegedly contributed as well notable Muslims, especially a certain businessman, in Borno and another in Bauchi .

The Bauchi man  said to have developed links with Al-Qaeda in Somalia having received some training from one Abu Umar Al-Wadud, was said to have escaped from Nigeria in 2009, to Somalia but visited Nigeria in October 2010 and was said to have held meetings in Kano with the leaders of Boko Haram, including Abubakar Shekau, the acclaimed military commander.