The Presidency, yesterday, finally
opened up on the controversy surrounding the seizure by South Africa of
Nigeria’s $ 15m meant for the purchase of arms for the Nigeria Intelligence
Service.
Last month, two Nigerians and an
Israeli national attempted to smuggle into South Africa $ 9.3m cash conveyed in
a chartered private jet which was seized by the South African authorities.
About three weeks after, another $ 5.7m was seized when a South African company
that was contracted to help purchase the arms by an Abuja based company tried
to pay back the money.
Speaking on the seizure, yesterday,
Senior Special Assistant to President Goodluck Jonathan on Public
Communication, Dr. Doyin Okupe, explained why the government has been silent on
the issue.
Okupe said, “The Nigerian government
cannot share all information about the issues because it is a security matter.
It is an issue which we cannot just bring to pubic domain. For goodness sake,
we need to have some quiet innocent support. I am surprised that Nigerians want
to discuss security issues openly and publicly when a war is still going on.
“These are very serious national security
affairs and running a government is not the same thing as running a Shoprite,
where everything is on the table and on display. There is nothing shady about
the South African deal and the Office of the NSA has done very well because at
the appropriate time, they came in that, ‘yes, this money belongs to us and
this was what it was meant for;’ that explanation itself was okay. There is no
hanky panky on this matter.”
He also stated that the second
controversial deal has legitimized the first because it was a normal banking
transaction.
Okupe said,“A company was mandated
to do a national security assignment for the Federal Government of Nigeria and
because of the extant laws in South Africa, that company was unable to deliver
its contractual agreement with the Nigerian government; the company now wants a
refund which is normal.”
The presidency also exonerated the national
president of Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor from
alleged involvement of his aircraft in the controversial $ 9.3m arms deal in
South Africa.
Okupe noted, “the linking of Pastor
Ayo Oritsejafor is the most unfortunate thing; to put the very respectable,
responsible, honest and sincere President of CAN in this matter is the extreme
of mischief. It just shows you what Nigerians do, they go to any extent to
politicize everything. What bothers me here is the manner with which people
want to bring down Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor on this matter. It is pure absurdity.
“Oritsejafor has no business in this
matter. It is true that he owns the aircraft but there are over 200 private
Nigerians who have jets. Apart from those who use it frequently, some give it
out to get some money and defray some of the costs. If you put your jet down,
you pay money and parking charges everyday. He gave the private jet to a
company to manage. The company is handling it and these people gave out the
plane that is available.
“What has this to do with
Oritsejafor? If I have many cars at the airport and decide to give one to car
hire services and he decides to carry somebody having Indian hemp, will you
link it up with the man who gave it out? Excuse me, this is ridiculous.”
The presidential aide then advised
Nigerians to stop playing politics with every issue of national concern saying
it is not in tandem with patriotism.
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