Leadership (Abuja)
Golu Timothy
16 October 2007
Abuja — Operatives of State Security Service have began investigation into the actual source of funding of an American Nigerian, Dr. Judith Asuni who was arrested alongside two Germans for allegedly trespassing into the security territory of the nation to commit espionage. The SSS is determined to know who Asuni is working for and at what risk she is ready to do what she is alleged to have committed.
Top sources at the SSS headquarters who confided in our correspondent, said that investigations so far revealed that Asuni set up her NGO, the Academic Associates Peace Network (AAPN), not for humanitarian purposes, but to penetrate the Nigerian government and society with a view to getting impeccable access to areas of strategic national significance.
The source said it was also discovered that she had cultivated a relationship with former President Olusegun Obasanjo's NGO, the African Leadership Forum, from which vantage position she penetrated states like Delta, Bayelsa, Rivers and Nassarawa and established a network in the Niger delta.
Asuni,who is billed to appear in court today, is said to have gone to great length under the cover of her NGO to gather a lot of strategic information about the country which she intends to pass to her sponsors for yet to be identified purposes.
In her application for the registration of the NGO, Asuni said AAPN seeks to build awareness of the need and possibilities of peace in society and to empower individuals and groups in finding peace through training, networking and developing a framework for the peace process through action oriented research and orientation in current and potential conflict.
"However, capitalizing under the above stated aims and objectives and hiding under the AAPN's organisational framework, Judith Asuni concentrated her activities in the negotiation for release of hostages and demobilization and reintegration of armed groups among other issues."
Asuni who is currently in the custody of the SSS, has been refused bail, as investigation continue in her case, in which sensitive documents were produced against her by the federal government.
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