Ex-militant involved in the $9.3m arms deal
The All Progressives Congress says ex-militant, Alhaji Mujaheed Dokubo-Asari, was involved in the $9.3m arms deal which led to the arrest of two Nigerians and an Israeli in South Africa.
The party, therefore, asked President Goodluck Jonathan to explain to Nigerians what Dokubo-Asari
was doing on the plane where the money was found and confiscated by the South African authorities.
But Dokubo-Asari had distanced himself from the $9.3m botched arms deal.
The party said this in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, on Wednesday.
It said, therefore, that the Federal Government had a lot of questions to answer on the deal, including whether Dokubo-Asari was the contractor or the end user, who he was procuring arms for and for what purpose.
The APC said the questions became pertinent because even the National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki (retd.), who issued the end-user agreement for the purchase, “does not and cannot purchase arms for any of the armed services.”
The statement read in part, “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?”
The party said the President should also come clean on the $5.7m that was also seized by South Africa on Monday. He said Jonathan would so well by revealing the identities of the Nigerians that were arrested in South Africa.
Dokubo-Asari in a telephone interview with journalists from Saudi Arabia where he is presently performing the 2014 Hajj, said the last time he visited South Africa was in 2002 and could not have gone to any country without a visa.
He said, “Can you enter any country without a visa? No person can enter any country without a visa. Presently, I am in Saudi Arabia performing my Hajj as the Amirul Hajj of Bayelsa State and this can be confirmed. I flew Flynass from Kaduna on September 27. So, it is really a shame that Lai Mohammed who has defiled the name of Allah has become a pathological and award-winning liar.
“Nobody enters any country without a visa and I have not been to South Africa since 2002. I flew Arik airline from Lagos on the September 27 and went to Kaduna where I flew Flynass airline and came to Saudi Arabia.”
