While Nigerians wait for closure on the $15
million arms money seized by South African
prosecutors, authorities in the two countries
appear to have agreed on an unholy barter to
exchange bodies of South Africans who died
in the Synagogue Church collapse in Nigeria,
for South African-made arms needed by
Nigeria to fight Boko Haram, The Mail and
Guardian, one of South Africa’s most
respected newspapers, has reported.
South Africa confiscated the money from arms
brokers who travelled there to procure arms
for the Nigerian military.
Mail and Guardian said it saw two letters
written by Jeff Radebe, the South African
special envoy in charge of facilitating the
repatriation of the bodies, to JP “Torie”
Pretorius, of the Directorate for Priority Crime
Investigations, also known as the Hawks, and
Dumisani Dladla, head of South African
National Conventional Arms Control
Committee, NCACC, secretariat, seeking to
assist the Nigerian government to get the
weapons, despite two court orders freezing
the money and continued probe into the
dubious deals by investigators.
On November 16, with the supervision of Mr.
Radebe, 74 bodies were repatriated to South
Africa following the September collapse of the
Synagogue Church in Lagos, Nigeria.
Majority of the dead were South Africans who
visited the church hoping to receive miracles
from the founder, T. B. Joshua.
Many in South Africa hailed Mr. Radebe as a
hero for being able to secure the release of
the bodies.
But the news that he might have entered into
a sinister swap agreement with Nigerian
officials to accelerate the return of the bodies
has cast a pall over that heroic persona.
The South African government has dismissed
the Mail and Guardian’s account as an
attempt to “discredit the collaborative efforts
of the South African and Nigerian
governments to repatriate the bodies of South
Africans that died in Nigeria”.
But the paper, in a follow-up report, said it
stood by its findings, as they were backed by
documents and confirmations from
government officials.
“It includes correspondence from Minister
Radebe to the Hawks and internal emails from
senior government officials,” Mail and
Guardian editor, Angela Quintal, said.
“The
email trail clearly shows that these officials
were discussing the minister’s request that
the investigation be halted and that they were
concerned about this.”
In the letters Mail and Guardian quoted, Mr.
Radebe, who is also the Chairman of NCACC
and a minister in the South African
presidency, tried hard to whitewash the deals
as legitimate.
“(It) was, in fact, a legitimate requirement
from the government of Nigeria,” he was
quoted to have written. “Although the
required administrative processes were not
adhered to at the time, the government of
South Africa deems it a bona fide error.”
He told Mr. Dladla to “laise” with Mr.
Pretorius to “obtain all relevant information
in order to assist the parties involved to apply
for the necessary authorisations in compliance
with the National Conventional Arms Control
Amendment Act (no 73 of 2008);” adding that
“Upon receipt of the required permit
applications, the national conventional arms
control committee will favourably consider ex-
post facto approval thereof.”
Though Mr. Radebe claimed that the attempt
to help Nigeria clean up the arms deal was
collectively agreed at an NCACC meeting, other
members of the committee are distancing
themselves from the agreement.
Also, while he claimed, through his
spokesperson, that the committee agreed to
help Nigeria legitimise the deals at its October
30 meeting, the letter seen by Mail and
Guardian was dated October 6, three weeks
before the meeting was held, the newspaper
said.
Mr. Radebe also said that the repatriation of
the bodies lay under the exclusive jurisdiction
of the Lagos State government and “had no
relation to the arms matter.”
He said he drafted the letters to Hawks and
the directorate for conventional arms control
“after consultation with the Federal Republic
of Nigeria”.
Mail and Guardian quoted a cabinet minister,
who is also a member of the arms committee,
as saying that Mr. Radebe singlehandedly
wrote the letter without consulting other
committee members. He said Mr. Radebe
merely sought their approval after the letter
had been delivered.
“Jeff cut this deal all by himself. He wanted to
claim credit for cracking this matter [securing
the return of bodies,” said the government
official. “His colleagues who serve on the arms
committee are distancing themselves from the
whole thing. They are refusing to back him on
this one. If we allow Nigeria to get away with
this, it means any country can come and do
the same.”
Mr. Radebe appeared to be completely isolated
on the matter as prosecutors said they are not
relenting in their effort at getting to the
bottom of the matter.
Paul Ramaloko, a captain with the Hawks said
his organisation is forging ahead with its
investigation and that he knew nothing about
the attempt of Mr. Radebe to withdraw the
charges.
Mail and Guardian said Mr. Radebe’s letters
are being discussed within the country’s
diplomatic circles with officials wondering
what to do with it.
An email the newspaper claimed it saw read:
“What concerns the NCAI [National Arms
Control Inspectorate] about this case is that
there are no documents … end-user
certificate, or otherwise … from the Nigerian
government that they had ordered the arms
and ammunition. Thus far, there is no proof
that has been provided that the Nigerian
government ordered these goods or is in any
way involved in this deal.”
The officials who wrote the email added that,
having bought arms from South Africa before,
“the responsible officials in that country
understand the administrative and legal
process that South Africa requires”.
Nigeria’s National Security Adviser, Sambo
Dasuki, could not be reached for comments.
His spokesperson, Adebisi Adekunle, could not
also be contacted as calls to his telephone
were unsuccessful.
A spokesperson to President Goodluck
Jonathan, Reuben Abati, did not also respond
to calls to his phones.
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