Even as the dust over the $9.3 million smuggled into South Africa was yet to settle, reports have emerged of the seizure of another $5.7 million by South African in the course of a botched arms deal.
South Africa’s City Press newspaper which exposed this latest scandal said the arms deal was between Cape Town based arms broker , Cerberus Risk Solution and a company said to be based in Abuja, Nigeria ,Societe D’Equipments Internationaux.
Though R60 million (N1.02 billion) had been paid by Nigerian partner to Cerberus ,the deal apparently collapsed and the South African company which had received payment through its Standard Bank account sought to pay back the money to Nigeria .
City Press reported how the deal went awry thus: “Cerberus was previously registered as a broker with the National Conventional Arms Control Committee (NCACC), but the registration expired in May this year.”
“The marketing and contracting permits also expired at the same time. The company has since applied for re-registration, but the application lay in the NCACC’s mailbox for more than two months.
“Sources told Rapport that Cerberus apparently tried to pay the money back to the Nigerian company, after which the bank became suspicious.”.
South African authorities have eventually seized the money.
Nigerian Officials ExpressConcern Over Disclosures
PRNigeria has issued a news release highlighting some unease within Nigerian official quarters over the growing revelations about Nigeria’s official transactions with South African companies.Read the PRNigeria news release below:
“Even though it looks like an old story being refreshed for impact, the South African media have published documents confirming the legitimacy of the botched arms deals between Nigeria and the former apartheid enclave.
“Reports by Rapport and City Press appeared to finally vindicate Federal Government’s official position that the transactions were legitimate as they confirmed that contrary to insinuations, end user certificates and a ‘shopping’ list accompanied the transactions as well as a note from Nigerian government authenticating the deals.
“According to the reports, documents show that the earlier consignment was approved by the Nigerian government – through the Office of national security adviser which is officially mandated to issue the end-user certificate for such transactions that involved security agencies in Nigeria.
“An entire ‘shopping list’ was also said to have been supplied with the certificate, which included everything from helicopters to unmanned aircraft, rockets and ammunition.
“A top security source in the intelligence service disclosed that “in issuing end-user certificate, the ONSA ensures that it carries all relevant agencies and stakeholders along. Therefore, such a responsibility is not a unilateral development.
“For security reasons, the chains leading to the issuance of end-user certificate cannot be put in the public domain.
“The recent interest in arms purchase was informed by the challenges of insurgency which our nation had been grappling with in the last few years. This is why the understanding of all Nigerians is necessary.
“Nigeria is desperate to counter activities of terrorists no matter what it takes even when some of our friends are not being fair to us.
“The government appeals to the media and all Nigerians, especially the opposition, to consider the overall national interest on security issues. They should not read negative meaning to every good intention of government in tackling insecurity in the country,” the officer added.
“The curious interest in the nation’s arms deal in the past few weeks appeared to have suggested that some vested interests do not want Nigeria to win the war against insurgency. Some fifth columnists are certainly at work to achieve a clandestine purpose.
“The government and some top intelligence officers in Nigeria are concerned about how some officials of South Africa decided to frustrate the efforts of Nigeria at containing the activities of terrorists operating in the North-Eastern axis especially since authoritative sources confirmed that there were official communications at the top level of the two governments.
“Some diplomats in Nigeria are also concerned that despite the leeway given to South African companies to thrive in Nigeria, there are still officials of the country who are determined to frustrate Nigeria, which in April this year overtook South Africa as Africa’s largest economy.
“The recent story may just be a refreshment of the old story with a new story angle,PRNigeria said .
(With Reports By PRNigeria)
