Former President of Christian Association of Nigeria, Pastor Ayo Orisejafor has again explained how his jet was used to carry $9.3 million during the tenure of former President Good luck Jonathan.
He.gave the explanation in a recent interview with Channels Television during which the matter was brought up again.
The story
It will be recalled that the money on the jet which was being taken to South Africa was meant to procure firearms to fight insurgency in the country.
But it was intercepted at the Lanseria International Airport by the South African government on September 5 2014 . The authorities then launched an investigation alleging money laundering and illegal arms brokering.
The ownership of the jet was traced to Pastor Oritsejafor, who at the time was the President of CAN and a well-known close ally of President Goodluck Jonathan.
Pastor Orisejafor had explained that the jet was gifted to him by his congregation to mark his 40th anniversary in ministry and that he.leased it to offset the high maintenance and parking costs of owning a private jet.
He had leased the aircraft to a management company called Eagle Air Company (in which he held a residual interest). Eagle Air had in turn leased the plane to another company, Green Coast Produce Limited, on August 2, 2014. Green Coast then chartered the plane out to a man named John Ishyaku for the specific Abuja–Johannesburg flight.
Pastor Oritsejafor had maintained that once the plane was handed over to the commercial lease network, he had zero control over who was hiring it or what they were putting in their luggage.
The Office of the National Security Adviser (NSA), then headed by Sambo Dasuki, admitted that the cash belonged to the Nigerian government.
He explained that it was a legitimate procurement mission assigned to a private contractor to buy weapons for the Nigerian military to fight Boko Haram.
At the time, Nigeria was facing an unofficial arms embargo from western nations (particularly the United States, due to human rights concerns surrounding the military’s handling of the insurgency).
The Jonathan administration claimed they were forced to resort to alternative, “under-the-counter” cash transactions with private security firms in South Africa to circumvent these diplomatic blocks and get hardware quickly.
The recent defence
When the issue was raised during the recent interview with Channels, Pastor Orisejafor said, “l”ve explained what happened with my plane being used to carry cash to anyone who cared to listen, I had leased that plane out because private planes are very expensive to maintain,so I gave it to a gentleman in Abuja to lease it out, until I heard that it was in some sort of issue with the plane being used to take large sums of money to buy weapons in South Africa.
“It is up to everyone to draw their own conclusions, former President Jonathan is still alive and his NSA Dasuki is still alive, find out from them if I know anything about it.”
Oritsejafor who is the founder of Word of Life Bible Church lamented during the interview that the situation in the country has grown worse ever since