In a deeply troubling, but dramatic and revealing letter to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Major General Danjuma Ali-Keffi (retd), has shed light on what he describes as a disturbing turn of events following a major breakthrough in Nigeria’s fight against terrorism.
The senior Army officer, who after successfully leading an elite task force that apprehended key figures within the Boko Haram insurgency—including what he called the “real leader” of the terror group, he was not celebrated, but instead met with vindictive retaliation as he was compulsorily retired, arrested, and made to spend 64 days of solitary confinement.
Ali-Keffi, who before his compulsory retirement, commanded the Nigerian Army’s 1 Division and served as the General Officer Commanding (GOC), was later appointed to head “Operation Service Wide,” a presidential sanctioned counter-terrorism investigative team.
The operation he recalled reportedly uncovered not only the masterminds of Boko Haram, but also a network of financiers, including senior government officials, military officers, and top financial institutions.
In the words of Ali-Keffi; “The moment we arrested some of these individuals and started exposing the financial pipelines of terror, the backlash began,” Ali-Keffi said in his letter to the President.
This was just as he contended that some powerful interests within and outside the government moved swiftly to suppress the operation and silenced those behind it.
General Ali-Keffi in a more shocking expose‘ raised concerns over the tragic death of Lt. General Ibrahim Attahiru, Nigeria’s late Chief of Army Staff, who died in a plane crash in 2021, saying that the late COAS was determined to go after terror financiers and had endorsed the work of Operation Service Wide.
Ali-Keffi subtly implied that Attahiru’s death may not have been accidental, thus appealed to President Tinubu to revisit the incident and open a transparent investigation into both the crash and the broader sabotage of anti-terror efforts.
The allegations made by General Ali-Keffi, now in the public domain, have ignited calls for accountability even as the federal government is yet to issue an official response to the correspondence.
The implications of retired General Ali-Keffi’s testimony are far reaching and profound as they point to a deeply entrenched system where fighting terrorism is undermined from within, just as brave efforts to protect the nation are punished rather than praised.
Be that as it may, Ali-Keffi’s whistleblowing has added a new dimension to Nigeria’s complex security challenges as his story raises important urgent questions: Who truly benefits from the prolonged war against insurgency? And why are those fighting it from within the system being silenced?
Until these questions are answered with transparency and courage, the nation’s fight against terror may remain compromised—not by lack of will or strategy, but by internal betrayal at the highest levels.
In a deeply troubling, but dramatic and revealing letter to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Major General Danjuma Ali-Keffi (retd), has shed light on what he describes as a disturbing turn of events following a major breakthrough in Nigeria’s fight against terrorism.
The senior Army officer, who after successfully leading an elite task force that apprehended key figures within the Boko Haram insurgency—including what he called the “real leader” of the terror group, he was not celebrated, but instead met with vindictive retaliation as he was compulsorily retired, arrested, and made to spend 64 days of solitary confinement.
Ali-Keffi, who before his compulsory retirement, commanded the Nigerian Army’s 1 Division and served as the General Officer Commanding (GOC), was later appointed to head “Operation Service Wide,” a presidential sanctioned counter-terrorism investigative team.
The operation he recalled reportedly uncovered not only the masterminds of Boko Haram, but also a network of financiers, including senior government officials, military officers, and top financial institutions.
In the words of Ali-Keffi; “The moment we arrested some of these individuals and started exposing the financial pipelines of terror, the backlash began,” Ali-Keffi said in his letter to the President.
This was just as he contended that some powerful interests within and outside the government moved swiftly to suppress the operation and silenced those behind it.
General Ali-Keffi in a more shocking expose‘ raised concerns over the tragic death of Lt. General Ibrahim Attahiru, Nigeria’s late Chief of Army Staff, who died in a plane crash in 2021, saying that the late COAS was determined to go after terror financiers and had endorsed the work of Operation Service Wide.
Ali-Keffi subtly implied that Attahiru’s death may not have been accidental, thus appealed to President Tinubu to revisit the incident and open a transparent investigation into both the crash and the broader sabotage of anti-terror efforts.
The allegations made by General Ali-Keffi, now in the public domain, have ignited calls for accountability even as the federal government is yet to issue an official response to the correspondence.
The implications of retired General Ali-Keffi’s testimony are far reaching and profound as they point to a deeply entrenched system where fighting terrorism is undermined from within, just as brave efforts to protect the nation are punished rather than praised.
Be that as it may, Ali-Keffi’s whistleblowing has added a new dimension to Nigeria’s complex security challenges as his story raises important urgent questions: Who truly benefits from the prolonged war against insurgency? And why are those fighting it from within the system being silenced?
Until these questions are answered with transparency and courage, the nation’s fight against terror may remain compromised—not by lack of will or strategy, but by internal betrayal at the highest levels.
