South Africa has seized the $9.3 million Nigerian cash flown abroad a
private jet into its capital, Johannesburg, from Abuja early this month.
Two Nigerians and an Israeli were travelling with the plane’s crew at
the time the cash, which was not declared, was found on the plane.South
African security and Nigeria have launched an investigation into what
transpired.The explanation from Nigeria that the money was meant for
arms purchase for the Nigeria intelligence agencies, has been rejected
by South Africa’s Asset Forfeiture Unit (AFU) and the National
Prosecuting Authority of South Africa (NPA).The NPA, in a statement,
according to online publication Premium Times, said the manner in which
the money was brought into the country breached the laws that deal with
the transfer of foreign exchange of such proportion.
“The money was
initially detained by the South African Revenue Service (SARS) as it was
not disclosed or declared at customs, and was above the prescribed
legal limit for the amount of cash that may be brought into the
country,” it said in a statement.
The NPA, according to the medium,
said its investigation showed that Tier One Services Group, the firm the
Nigerian government claimed it wanted to procure the arms from, is not
authorised to sell or rent military
hardware.
“In court papers, the
NPA submitted evidence that Tier One is not registered with the National
Conventional Arms Control Committee and is thus not authorised to enter
into any agreements regarding the sale and/or rental of military
equipment,” the statement read.
Tier One has apparently issued an
invoice to a Cyprus based company, ESD International Group Ltd, ESD, in
respect of the procurement of armaments and helicopters to be delivered
to Nigeria.
However, South African investigators said the time when
the invoice was prepared and the time the money was brought in threw up
some serious issues of its true intent.
The money was ferried to
South Africa less than a week from the date the invoice was prepared
(September 8, 2014). The involvement of a Cyprus based company also
heightens the suspicion that this may be a case of classical money
laundering. Cyprus is known for its secretive banking system.
The NPA
added that the transaction did not follow normal procedure in the
procurement of the kind of equipment it was alleged to have been meant
for.
The Senate yesterday summoned National Security Adviser (NSA)
Col. Sambo Dasuki (rtd), Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshall Alex
Badeh and Chief of Army Staff Lt.-Gen. Kenneth Minimah over the
smuggled $9.3 million cash.
Chairman, Senate Committee on Defence,
Senator George Sekibo, said those invited to appear before his committee
on Tuesday would brief members on the incident.
He said: “ I don’t want to pre-empt issues because I have not heard details about the issue but they will be here on Tuesday.”
On
the soldiers sentenced to death, Sekibo said he was not surprised that
death sentence was passed on the 12 soldiers because before they joined
military, they were aware of the implication of being involved in
mutiny.
He added that before the judgment was passed, the army must have carried out their investigation on the matter.
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