$9.3m arms deal: APC rejects Asari Dokubo’s denial

By Umar Muhammad Puma

The All Progressives Congress (APC) has said that Asari Dokubo’s denial carries no weight until the Federal Government comes clean on the identity of Nigerians aboard the plane carrying the $9.3 million dollars impounded by the South African Government.

In a statement issued in Abuja yesterday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said its reaction followed a story published by some social media, saying Asari Dokubo was one of the Nigerians aboard the jet that carried the money to South Africa.

‘’To the best of our knowledge, that report has not been denied 24 hours after. We, therefore, contend that Asari Dokubo’s denial of his involvement carries no weight until the government, which has claimed ownership of the funds, tells Nigerians who the two Nigerian citizens – who were in the plane with an Israeli – are. We have no reason to disbelieve a widely-circulated published report that named him as one of those on the plane.”

APC wondered why the government has refused, for over three weeks now, to identify the Nigerians who flew on the plane that ferried the money to South Africa, especially after the Israeli who was also on the plane has been named.

‘’Identifying the Nigerians will help to unravel the circumstances surrounding the whole scandal. It will be interesting to know if the Nigerians are security officials, officials from the office of the NSA who issued the end-user certificate for the transaction or ordinary Nigerians. It will be interesting to know their relationship with the government that qualified them to fly such a huge amount of money to another country without declaring it. It will be interesting to know if they are arms contractors.

‘’We hope the Jonathan Administration will end its deafening silence on the issue immediately and come clean on the whole scandal,’’ the party said.