Reports on Monday indicated that the United States of America has imposed sanctions on eight Nigerians over alleged ties to terrorist organisations, including Boko Haram and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), as well as cybercrime-related offences.
The sanctions were announced in a February 10 publication by the United States Department of the Treasury through its Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).
The action was contained in a 3,000-page update of the “Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List” (SDN List), a reference document detailing individuals and entities subject to US sanctions.
According to OFAC, the list provides formal notice of persons whose property and interests in property are blocked under US law as part of counter-terrorism and other sanctions programmes.
“This publication of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control is designed as a reference tool providing actual notice of actions by OFAC with respect to Specially Designated Nationals and other persons… whose property is blocked, to assist the public in complying with the various sanctions programmes administered by OFAC,” the agency stated.
Individuals listed
Among those designated is Salih Yusuf Adamu, also known as Salihu Yusuf, born August 23, 1990. He was identified as having links to Boko Haram. Yusuf was among six Nigerians convicted in 2022 in the United Arab Emirates for establishing a Boko Haram cell to raise funds for insurgents in Nigeria. The group was found guilty of attempting to transfer $782,000 from Dubai to Nigeria.
Babestan Oluwole Ademulero, born March 4, 1953, was listed under terrorism-related sanctions. He was identified under multiple aliases, including Wole A. Babestan and Olatunde Irewole Shofeso.
Also designated was Abu Abdullah ibn Umar Al-Barnawi, also known as Ba Idrisa, reportedly born between 1989 and 1994 in Maiduguri, Borno State. He was flagged under terrorism-related sanctions.
Abu Musab Al-Barnawi, also referred to as Habib Yusuf, was identified as a Boko Haram leader and listed with varying birth years between 1990 and 1995.