A senior member of the European Parliament, Franz Obermayr MEP, has accused Nigeria’s mega opposition party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), of channeling European Parliament financial aid to Boko Haram in the North East of Nigeria.

Franz Obermayr of Austrian Freedom Party, currently the most popular political party in Austria, made the allegation in a press release issued on September 16 and quoted by The Nigerian Times.

Obermayr, who has been working closely with Stand for Peace, a Muslim-Jewish interfaith organisation dedicated to countering extremism and promoting social and religious cohesion, called on European Union (EU) election observers to closely scrutinise the links between APC and Boko Haram in the run up to the 2015 presidential election.

His words: “In Nigeria’s case, a large proportion of the subsidies from Brussels are used in the north of the country. The federal states of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa in the extreme North-East of the country are precisely the areas in which Boko Haram’s campaign of terror is largely tolerated by the authorities. The aforementioned sub-republics are governed by the All Progressives Congress (APC).”

Obermayr suggested that all further European Parliament cooperation and funding to Nigeria should be subject to the findings of a report into the close relationships between political parties and terrorist groups in the country, suggesting that all development aid should be immediately suspended if any wrong doing is exposed.

Turning to individuals in the APC, Mr. Obermayr referred to the US Embassy memo which alleged that presidential aspirant Atiku Abubukar, a former Vice-President, received money from al-Qaeda to “destabilise the south of the country.” He also referred to the recent defection of Femi Fani-Kayode from APC to the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) ostensibly because of the party’s “clear Islamist agenda and sympathies with Boko Haram.”

According to Mr. Obermayr, “Even the most senior man in the APC, former Nigerian head of state and presidential candidate, Mohammadu Buhari, was quoted in the British newspaper The Guardian back in 2001 calling for sharia law to be introduced throughout Nigeria, including the Christian-dominated south.”

The announcement from Obermayr and Stand for Peace follows a similar call from Andrew Rosindell MP, of the UK parliament, for an inquiry into the relationship between members of APC and Boko Haram.

•Photo shows APC chieftains Buhari and Atiku.

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