Special Report
by George Ozalla
If you believe that doing the right thing should win you praise rather than punishment, ask retired Major General Danjuma Ali‑Keffi about life inside Nigeria’s security establishment. His story suggests that trying to be more efficient, more honest, even when explicitly trusted by the Presidency, can land you in detention and see you forced out of service, regardless of your commitment or track record.
Major General Ali‑Keffi says that in 2021 he was selected to head a multi‑agency counter‑terrorism investigation called Operation Service Wide (OSW). The task force was charged with tracing the financing networks supporting insurgent groups, including tracking financial flows tied to terror suspects. According to Ali‑Keffi, OSW uncovered links between terror suspects and several powerful Nigerians, among them senior military officers, top bankers and other high‑ranking officials.
Ali‑Keffi states that in September 2021 the investigation’s findings were presented to the Presidency. Within weeks, on October 18, 2021, he was summoned to the Headquarters of the Military Police. He laid claim that he was then detained without charge for 64 days in solitary confinement, stripped of personal items, forced to sleep on the floor, denied contact with his family or proper medical treatment, a period he described as humiliating, traumatic and deeply unjust.
On December 21, 2021, immediately after his release, Ali‑Keffi received a letter announcing his compulsory retirement from the Nigerian Army. At no point was he formally tried or even charged with an offence. He says he never learnt what his alleged offence was. He believes the action was driven by a coordinated effort to neutralise him and shut down OSW’s findings.
Among the revelations he says OSW had uncovered was an offshore account holding roughly US$600 million belonging to an international suspect linked to terrorism financing. He claims that a US$50 million bribe was offered to unfreeze the funds, a bribe his team rejected. He insists that after his removal, many of the suspects arrested under OSW were quietly released without prosecution, and the probe was effectively terminated.
Ali‑Keffi maintains that at the time of his removal, the list of suspects marked for arrest or elimination under OSW ran into hundreds, over 400 individuals, and included high‑profile terror operatives. For him the purge was less about discipline and more about protecting powerful interests threatened by exposure.
His account has drawn sharp rebuttals from some of those he named or linked to the suspects. A former Army Chief publicly described the allegations as baseless, malicious and part of a personal vendetta, rejecting any past or present involvement in terrorism financing or illicit networks. Others named have similarly denied wrongdoing, emphasising their track records and demanding retractions.
Ali‑Keffi’s ordeal illustrates a deeper reality in Nigeria’s security architecture: accountability for fighting terrorism may be uneven, depending on whose interests are exposed. The cost of doing what many would call “the right thing” can be steep: detention, loss of honour, forced retirement, silence. His story calls on the government to re‑open investigations, subject suspects to due process and safeguard those who expose illicit networks from internal sabotage.
Retired Major General Danjuma Ali‑Keffi served as General Officer Commanding 1 Division and led Operation Service Wide, a multi‑agency counter‑terrorism task force established to track terror financing in Nigeria.
