Nasir El-Rufai Another Busted Arms Deal: South Africa Seizes $5.7million from Nigeria - Monday, 06 October 2014 - By Elombah In one more busted multimillion-naira arms deal between two countries in the past month, the South African Asset Forfeiture Unit of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) has seized yet another $5.7 million for an additional arms deal between South Africa and Nigeria. Consequently, both monies are being frozen in South African banks. Early September, $ 9.3million in $100 bills stashed in suitcases was seized at Lanseria Airport, north of Johannesburg. The money was frozen in both cases for allegedly being the proceeds of illegal transactions. The department for offences against the state in the Special Investigating Unit is also involved, according to a South African based paper, it was learnt. Documents in the newspaper’s possession show that the earlier consignment was approved by the Nigerian government – that country’s national security adviser personally issued the end-user certificate for the transaction. An entire “shopping list” was supplied with the certificate, which included everything from helicopters to unmanned aircraft, rockets and ammunitions. The latest transaction was between Cerberus Risk Solutions, an arms broker in Cape Town, and Societe D’Equipments Internationaux, a Nigerian company in Abuja said sources close to the investigation. It was gathered from an impeccable source that this company paid the N868 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. It was gathered 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. Nigeria news elombah
Posted on: Wed, 08 Oct 2014 08:06:24 +0000