SAN FRANCISCO, October 06, (THEWILL) – Barely four weeks after South African authorities confiscated almost $10 million in cash from an Israeli and two Nigerians who had arrived at the Lansera Airport in Johannesburg from Nigeria onboard a private plane to close an arms deal on behalf of the Nigerian government, South Africa’s Asset Forfeiture Unit of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) has seized another $5.7 million (R64 million) meant for another arms deal.
The NPA ordered the funds frozen in the bank for allegedly being proceeds of illegal transactions.
According to a report in the Rapport newspaper, a sister publication of City Press, which reported the first seizure, it said Nigeria’s National Security Adviser (NSA), Sambo Dasuki, a retired army colonel, approved the first transaction and personally issued the end-user certificate for the transaction.
The paper said an entire “shopping list” was supplied with the certificate, which included everything from helicopters to unmanned aircraft, rockets and ammunition.
Sources close to the investigation said the latest transaction was between Cerberus Risk Solutions, an arms broker in Cape Town, and Societe D’Equipments Internationaux, a Nigerian company in Abuja.
An impeccable source said this company paid the R60 million into Cerberus’ account at Standard Bank.
Cerberus was previously registered as a broker with the National Conventional Arms Control Committee (NCACC), but the registration expired in May this year.
The marketing and contracting permits also expired at the same time.
The company has since applied for re-registration, but the application lay in the NCACC’s mailbox for more than two months.
Sources told Rapport that Cerberus apparently tried to pay the money back to the Nigerian company, after which the bank became suspicious.
The NPA’s Asset Forfeiture Unit subsequently obtained a court order in the South Gauteng High Court to seize the money.
Cerberus’ attorney, Martin Hood, this week declined to comment on the matter.
NPA spokesperson Nathi Mncube said there were no indications that the two transactions were related.
“However, both are now the subject of a criminal investigation and all possible information and connections are being investigated,” said Mncube.
Intelligence sources told THEWILL that Nigeria opted to do business with South African arms dealers because the United States of America has been blocking it from buying arms from Israel as the military continues to battle Boko Haram terrorists in the North East.
The source said Nigeria also tried Russia but the crisis between Ukraine and its neighbour has frustrated that effort.
Opening up on the challenges the Nigerian military has faced dealing with the procurement of arms for the war effort in the North-east, an official with knowledge of the frustrations told Nigeria’s Thisday newspaper that “The US government has frustrated Nigeria all the way in our war against terrorism despite its public statements in support of Nigeria, as it fights the Boko Haram insurgents in the North-east.
“They have refused to sell us arms and equipment and even our recent attempt to buy Chinook helicopters, which are manufactured in the US, from the Israelis was blocked, based on unfounded allegations of human rights violations by our troops. This is after the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Natanyahu had initially approved the purchase.”
