$9.3 Million Arms Deal: Asari Dokubo Was On Private Jet, APC Alleges

Former militant, Asari Dokubo has been accused of being involved in the recent illegal arms deal involving $9.3 million in cash which was smuggled to South Africa aboard a private jet. The All Progressives Congress (APC), in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Lai Mohammed, demanded an explanation from President Goodluck Jonathan about what Dokubo was doing aboard the jet in question, which belongs to the President of the Christian Association of Nigeria , Ayo Oritsejafor.

The statement reads:

”Under our Constitution, the NSA is an adviser and has no executive powers to deploy troops from any of the services or purchase arms for them. That the arms purported to be purchased from South Africa were ordered from the office of the NSA is nothing but a mere fabrication, and raises serious questions about the motive for the purchase."

”Nigerians will therefore like to know on whose behalf Asari Dokubo was purchasing arms. This is very crucial because Asari Dokubo has been threatening that Nigeria will not know peace if his benefactor, President Jonathan, is not re-elected. Therefore, Nigerians will like to know whether he has started stockpiling arms to make his threat a reality, since elections are due in a few months’ time."

”If these arms are meant to fight insurgency, as the government has claimed, what is Asari Dokubo’s business purchasing arms for the Nigerian military, if indeed they were for the military? Does it not occur to the Nigerian government that this man who once took arms against the state may not have jettisoned his sinister plan against the same state? Which country will ever allow a man who once carried arms against the state to now be purchasing arms for the same state?"

"Even if it is true that he is purchasing the arms for the state, what prevents him from also using the opportunity to purchase arms for his own sinister motive? Could this be why Asari Dokubo has been talking publicly and confidently, without official censure, that President Jonathan must be re-elected or Nigeria will not know peace again?”

The party also said:

”…on Tuesday, we again asked President Jonathan to come clean on the US$9.3 million and US$5.7 million deals. We also asked him to tell Nigerians the identity of the two Nigerians who were on the plane that illegally ferried money to South Africa. Now that the Nigerians are known, and they are the President’s men, the story has taken a new dimension,”

A second arms deal of US$5.7 million, also involving Nigeria, was squashed in South Africa after being discovered by authorities.