The Federal Government has kept mum over the conviction of Lafarge, a French cement maker found guilty of paying millions of dollars in protection money to jihadist groups, including the group calling itself Islamic State (IS), to keep its business running in Syria during the civil war.
Eight ex-Lafarge employees were also found guilty of financing terrorism, including former CEO Bruno Lafont, who was jailed for six years on Monday.
The court in Paris found that Lafarge paid groups $6.5m (€5.59m; £4.83m) between 2013 and 2014 to keep its plant operating in northern Syria.
Judge Isabelle Prevost-Desprez said such payments had allowed proscribed organisations to gain control of the country’s natural resources, enabling them to finance attacks across the Middle East and Europe.
Lafarge has a presence in Nigeria with plants in Ewekoro and Sagamu in Ogun State, Mfamosing in Cross River State and Ashaka in the North-East of Nigeria.
Like Syria, Nigeria is also grappling with terrorism, as armed groups such as Boko Haram, the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), Lakurawa, and various bandits continue to terrorise communities across the northern region.
Daily Trust reached out to both the Office of the National Security Adviser and the office of the Attorney-General of the Federation to get official reactions to the conviction of Lafarge in the Paris court, but received no response.
When the Head of the Strategic Communications in the National Counter-Terrorism Centre at ONSA, Micheal Abu, was contacted on Tuesday, he said the matter would be addressed at a press briefing on Thursday.
Similarly, Kamarudeen Ogundele, the media aide to the Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation, Lateef Fagbemi, simply said “no comment” in a chat with one of our correspondents last night.
Monday’s Paris court ruling came a few days after the Nigerian government published a list of 48 individuals and groups allegedly linked to terrorism financing in Nigeria.
The publication came amid heightened scrutiny of financial networks supporting armed groups and separatist movements, as authorities intensified efforts to disrupt funding channels linked to insecurity across Nigeria.
ISWAP was named in the report as one of the extremist groups allegedly receiving funding from the individuals listed in the report, some of whom included Simon Ekpa, a Finland-based separatist figure associated with a faction of IPOB and Tukur Mamu, a Kaduna-based publisher who is currently facing trial in Nigeria over alleged involvement in terrorism financing.
In Nigeria, ISIS operates mainly through ISWAP and is notorious for attacks in the North-east and Lake Chad region.
Checks showed that it is the first time a company has been tried in France for financing terrorism. The inquiry against Lafarge has been running since 2017.
Prosecutors said Lafarge employees were housed in the nearby town of Manbig and needed to cross the Euphrates River to access the plant.
The court heard how the cement company paid intermediaries to ensure free movement for employees and trucks.
Isabelle Prevost-Desprez, presiding judge, said it was clear to the court that payments were intended to keep the company’s factory open but noted that the money helped strengthen groups that carried out attacks in Syria and abroad.
Those payments were “essential in enabling the terrorist organisations to gain control of Syria’s natural resources, allowing it to finance terrorist acts within the region and those planned abroad, particularly in Europe,” Prevost-Desprez said.
She said the amount paid to jihadist organisations contributed to the “extreme gravity of the offences”.
Herrault had argued that the decision to keep the factory open was made out of concern for local staff.
Lafarge, now owned by Swiss conglomerate Holcim, was fined €1.125 million.
Lafarge told the BBC it acknowledged the court’s finding, which it said “concerns a legacy matter involving conduct that occurred more than a decade ago and was in flagrant violation of Lafarge’s code of conduct”.
Lafarge’s factory began operations in 2010, just months before the Syrian uprising triggered a civil war.
While other multinational companies left Syria in 2012, Lafarge evacuated only its foreign employees and left its Syrian staff in place until September 2014, when IS, which declared a “caliphate” in parts of Syria and Iraq, seized control of the factory.
With about 10.5 million metric tonnes per annum of installed cement capacity across its four plants in Nigeria, Lafarge is one of the country’s major cement producers.
In February, the company announced expansion plans for its Ashaka plant in Gombe and Sagamu plant in Ogun.
Upon completion, the Ashaka plant is targeted to reach a total annual capacity of two million metric tonnes, while the Sagamu plant aims for 3.5 million metric tonnes.
Last August, Holcim sold its entire 83.81 percent shareholding in Lafarge Africa Plc to Huaxin Cement, a Chinese firm.
The transaction was valued at $1 billion on a 100 percent equity basis, before dividend adjustments.
(Daily Trust)
