BEVERLY HILLS, March 04, (THEWILL) – The identity of the son of a former Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), retired Justice Muhammadu Uwais, GCON, who has allegedly joined the terrorist group, Islamic State, (ISIS) in Syria has been revealed as Ibrahim.
Ibrahim, 41, the third son of the respected retired jurist, studied at the Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria, Kaduna State, where he majored in Business Administration, sources close to the family told THEWILL Wednesday.
THEWILL was also told that Nigerian intelligence officers have debriefed Justice Uwais and members of the Uwais family. The Uwais family has also been receiving messages of solidarity from friends and prominent Nigerians on the development since the news of Ibrahim’s radicalization broke.
THEWILL had earlier exclusively reported that Ibrahim, his two wives and five children abandoned their family home in Abuja some days back for Syria via Dubai, where he is believed to have joined the notorious Islamic terrorist group fighting to establish an Islamic caliphate in the middle east.
Intelligence reports from the Saudi government through diplomatic channels to the Nigerian government, according to security sources, confirmed that Ibrahim and his family, who have not made contact with their anxious families in Nigeria since their departure, have since arrived in Syria.
ISIS presently controls large territories in Iraq, Syria and Libya, where they have been brutal with their jihad.
Meanwhile, the federal government, Department of State Security Services (SSS), the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) as well as other security agencies have stepped up efforts to stop ISIS recruiters from luring vulnerable young Nigerians to the terrorist group now synonymous with targeting children of the influential and elites through the social media.
Speaking with THEWILL from Lagos on Wednesday, the coordinator of the National Information Centre on the war against terrorism and Director-General of the National Orientation Agency, Mr. Mike Omeri, said government agencies are collaborating with organisations and aggressively educating Nigerian youths on the dangers of jihad and radicalism.
“We are aware that recruiters for ISIS from South Africa are seeking to recruit young vulnerable Nigerians via the social media. This was why we alerted Nigerians last week of this development. As we speak I am attending a programme in Lagos where we are actively educating the youths on the dangers of radicalism and jihad in order to discourage them. We are also teaching them on how to safely use the social media in order to help them detect fraudulent intentions,” Omeri said.
The official, who said he had not been officially briefed on the younger Uwais joining ISIS, however said Nigeria has been collaborating and sharing counter-terrorism intelligence with several countries as the world steps up efforts to clamp down on ISIS, al-Qaeda and other terrorist organisations.
The United Nations and more than 60 countries including Oman, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Jordan, the European Union and the United States have designated ISIS as a terrorist organization.
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