Despite his repeated stance of not being involved in the illegal movement of $9.3 million cash to South Africa to purchase arms, it has been revealed that the President of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor was involved.
A security source revealed that President Goodluck Jonathan and the National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki, coordinated the movement of the cash with the original destination as Cyprus, not South Africa.
It would be recalled that the movement of the cash, according to documents from the Nigerian government was to procure arms from Tier One in South Africa. It turned out Tier One is not registered in that country to sell arms, and that it was going to buy them, somehow, from the ESD International Group Ltd in Cyprus.
In a ‘clever’ bid to wash his hands of the sordid story, Pastor Oritsejafor had said he leased the jet to Eagle Air, in which he has an interest. Eagle who in turn, it leased it to Gold Coast Produce Limited.
It was however revealed that the web of so- called leases woven around the transaction was concocted in August to enable Pastor Oritsejafor deny knowledge of the deal.
There have been conceited efforts to obtain a copy of the ‘lease’ from the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) was unsuccessful as the officials claimed the Minister of Aviation, Osita Chidoka, was away.
In the same vein, the Corporate Affairs Commission, where Pastor Oritsejafor registered the plane under “Eagle Air” Limited, claims that their server has been taken over by one of their server/service providers, and that they are therefore unable to access information concerning ownership of Eagle Air.
It will be recalled that Pastor Oritsejafor’s Bombardier jet was seized in South Africa’s Lanserai airport on September 5 after law enforcement officials found that the jet had illegally ferried $9.3million cash into the country accompanied by an Isreali, Eyal Miseka and two Nigerians. The Nigerians are yet to be identified.
As soon as the seizure took place, President Jonathan intervened with the South African authorities in order to get the aircraft released as a way of preventing the public from knowing that Pastor Oritsejafor’s jet was involved in the deal.
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