| DAMAGUN unmasked
...The untold story of Daily Trust man accused of link to Osama bin Laden
From ISMAIL OMIPIDAN, Abuja
Sunday, January 21, 2007
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•Bin-laden
Photo: Sun News Publishing |
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Damagun is a name of a council (Fune) headquarters in Yobe
State, North- East, Nigeria. But like the practice in most parts of the North,
Damagun is also a name of a person as most northerners choose to take the name
of either their town or village as surname.
Mallam Bello Damagun, one of
the directors of Media Trust Limited (publishers of Weekly, Sunday and Daily Trust
respectively), is not an exception. The name Bello Damagun means different things
to different people. To some, he is an Islamic cleric. Some see him as an Islamic
philanthropist. But to the Nigerian authorities, he is a financier of a terrorist
gang in Nigeria.
Incidentally, Yobe, his state of origin, happens to be
the first state in Nigeria where Nigerian Muslim youths publicly acknowledged
that they were ‘Talibans,’ even though they are Nigerians. For the
period of their stay in Yobe and later Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, also
in the North-East, they had a gun duel with security operatives. During their
reign, it was common for them to sack an entire police station at a go, as they
wielded sophisticated weapons. In fact, it took a combined effort of the army,
mobile policemen and other plain-cloth security operatives before they were subdued.
The rest, as they say, is now history. Birth Place
As
at the time of filing this report, there were conflicting information regarding
where Damagun was actually born. What is however indisputable is that he grew
up mainly in Kaduna State some 50 years ago. Until perhaps, 2002, not many Nigerians
knew about the exploits of Damagun in Nigeria. However, Sunday Sun gathered that
the alleged terrorism baron in Nigeria is an acclaimed business man, who also
not only sees himself as an Islamic cleric but one who supports the spread and
propagation of the Islamic faith with all that God has blessed him with. Business
life
Sunday Sun gathered that Bello Damagun at a
point was into shipping and once worked with the popular sugar merchant. He was
later to go into real estate. An attempt to speak with Damagun himself at the
weekend met a brick wall as some of his known friends and associates contacted
said his phone was ‘unavailable’
(switched off). But some of them (who craved anonymity) claimed that he has properties
in London, Kano, Kaduna, Ikoyi in Lagos and Abuja. He is also said to have business
interests scattered all over the country. How He Bought into Media
Trust
Available facts indicate that Media Trust started off as a Media
consulting firm during the days of the Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF) managed by the
All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) presidential standard bearer, General Mohammadu
Buhari (Rtd). But by 1998, apparently in response to the new wind of democratic
governance blowing across the country, the owners of Media Trust went into publishing
with its first title- Weekly Trust debuting in March I998. Sunday Sun
gathered authoritatively that Damagun only came in with N500, 000 when the company
re-capitalized. Till date, Damagun is yet to increase his shareholding in the
newspaper company that boasts of about N50 million as its capital base, with Mallam
Kabiru Yusuf, a seasoned journalist and Managing Director/Editor-in-Chief of the
company as the largest share-holder. There are nine persons on the board as directors,
and Bello Damagun happens to be one of them. Terrorism Controversy
It all started in 2002
when some three young lads were assisted through the Nigerian embassy in Sudan
to return to Kano. According to the story told then, the boys said they were sponsored
on the trip allegedly by Damagun to go and further their Islamic education. But
on getting to Mauritania, they allegedly were not enrolled in any school, even
as they were made to fend for themselves. Somehow, they were said to have found
their way to the embassy where they told officials of their ordeals and how hunger
was biting them hard. Once they were able to land in Nigeria, Damagun was promptly
arrested and subsequently arraigned in a High court in Kano. The case dragged
till 2004 when he was discharged and acquitted. Since then nothing was heard of
the case until his latest arrest and subsequent arraignment in an Abuja Federal
High court. Latest Controversy
Since his first arrest
by the State Security Service (SSS), Damagun was requested to always send in a
written application each time he wants to travel abroad. This, Sunday Sun learnt,
has always been complied with each time he was traveling. He was said to have
gone through Kano abroad since after the 2002 incident. But this time around he
decided to go through Lagos. There are, however, conflicting reports as to whether
or not he duly applied to travel as at the time he was arrested. While some of
his friends said he did apply and got approval as usual, others say he never did.
While
in Lagos, one of the SSS officials who saw his (Damagun) passport on the security
alert system decided to accost him. He was arrested and flown to Abuja from where
he was later charged to court on a three-count charge. He was alleged to have
received the sum of $300,000 from a terrorist organization- Al Qaeda World Network,
Sudan, and deposited the money with Habibsons Bank Limited, Windson House, 55-56
ST James Street, London, in the account No 21067695, with the intent of deploying
the said money into the execution of acts of terrorism.
Also, he was alleged
to have given out various sums of money and a 10-seater bus with registration
Number, KADUNA AN 379 ANC and 30 loud speakers to Muhammed Yusuff, who had in
the past confessed having links with the Nigerian Taliban. His support to Yusuff,
his accusers claim, was to facilitate the spread of “Islamic extremism”
and various acts and techniques on terrorism. In addition, he was accused of recruiting,
sponsoring and transporting 14 members of a militia group to receive combat training
on terrorism at a camp in Mauritania. The accused pleaded not guilty to all the
charges against him.
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