The All Progressives Congress (APC) has urged President
Goodluck Jonathan to come clean on the circumstances
surrounding the 9.3 million US dollars that was impounded in
South Africa, which has become the latest in a series of global
ridicule to which the scandal-prone Jonathan administration
has subjected Nigeria and her people.
In a statement issued in Abuja on Thursday by its National
Publicity Secretary, Lai Mohammed, the party also called on
the National Assembly to launch an urgent investigation into
the issue, saying the silence of the peoples’ representatives on
the issue is deafening, unfathomable and unacceptable.
It said there is no doubt that the President is at the centre of
the whole issue, considering the presidential treatment given
to the plane and its cargo, since the plane departed from the
Presidential wing of the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport
in Abuja, away from the reach of the Nigerian Customs
Service which could not therefore have cleared the plane and
its passengers.
”It is absolutely urgent for President Jonathan to clear the air
on this alleged off-the-shelf equipment or arms purchase,
which runs against all known protocol for such purchases
anywhere in the world. Military equipment and weapons are
not bean cakes to be purchased by the road side. There are
globally-acceptable protocols for such purchases by
governments, otherwise what differentiates a government from
an insurgent group that is shopping for arms?
Questions for the President:
1. ”Is the Jonathan Administration not aware that the UN
General Assembly on April 2nd 2013 adopted a landmark
Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) precisely to regulate the
international trade in conventional weapons by avoiding the
kind of road-side purchase that the Nigerian government is
said to have been involved in? Though the ATT has not come
into effect, the fact that Nigeria is among the few countries to
have signed and ratified the treaty shows that the country is
concerned by unregulated arms trade,’’ the APC said.
The party said the resort to ”procedural error” to explain
away the whole issue cannot work, because Nigerian
authorities cannot pretend not to be aware that currency
brought into or taken from South Africa is monitored by law,
and that anyone bringing into that country more than R25,000
in South African currency or U$10,000 or the equivalent
thereof in foreign currency must declared such.
2. It said that in any case, those who are using ”procedural
error” as an alibi are being too clever by half. This is because
if entering or leaving a country with undeclared $9.3 million is
mere ”procedural error”, why was Sule Lamido’s son
convicted for not declaring a mere $50,000 dollars at the
Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport?
The APC said in the spirit of fairness, it has however decided
to give President Jonathan and the government he heads the
opportunity to make urgently-needed clarifications by
answering a number of questions relating to the $9.3 million
scandal.
3. “Is the money indeed meant to purchase a helicopter as
has been reported?
4. “To which arm of the government or security force does the
money belong?
5. “Who appropriated it and for what purpose?
6. “Why was the money being ferried in cash by the same
government that has been spending huge time and money to
promote a cashless policy? Is the resort to cash to avoid a
paper trail for the transaction, in which case it is illegal?
7. ”Mr. President, we are aware that each arm of security has
an account with the CBN for the purpose of arms purchase
and such transactions are properly documented, so why was
this not the case in this instance?
8. “Mr. President, why did it take your government all of 10
days to admit its involvement in this scandal, considering that
the embarrassing incident happened since Sept. 5th and was
not known until Sept. 15th?
9. “Does this saga not give credence to the widely held view
that you are indeed benefitting from the the Boko Haram
insurgency and that you have deliberately allowed it to
escalate to this level?
10. ”Mr. President, has this saga not confirmed the suspicion
that your 2015 reelection bid has been factored into your
handling of the Boko Haram insurgency?
11. “Has this saga not given more credence to revelations
that the sponsors of Boko Haram are those closest to the
President?
12. Has this saga not finally confirmed that the President
knows more than he is telling the nation about the sudden
escalation of the Boko Haram insurgency, especially in the run
up to the 2015 elections?
13. ”Mr. President, has this saga not confirmed that powerful
forces in your administration are all working in concert to use
the Boko Haram insurgency to secure tenure extension for
President Jonathan?
14. “Is not clear now why the Senate President infamously
declared two days ago that election is not on the table since
the country is in a state of war?
15. “Have we not been proven right in our declaration at the
panel discussion in the British House of Commons on Sept.
8th 2014 that the Jonathan administration will attempt to
cash in on the Boko Haram insurgency to postpone
elections?”
The party said the answers to the questions raised would go
a long way in showing Nigerians that their government is not
clandestinely buying equipment and weapons to fuel the Boko
Haram insurgency and then profit from its own act of perfidy.
It said while the President is compiling his answers to the
posers, he should ask his spokespersons to stop adding insult
to injury by saying the CIA, FBI, Mossad etc also travel
abroad with undeclared cash, in clear violation of the laws of
their destination countries, to buy arms.
”Mr President only gangsters and terrorists conduct their
businesses in this manner. Therefore, please call your
spokespersons to order, while you are preparing to come
clean to Nigerians on this latest scandal,” APC said.
https://m.premiumtimesng.com/news/top-news/168315-apc-challenges-jonathan-to-come-clean-on-us9-3million-controversy.html

jonaaaaaaaaaaaaaah oooo

come answer them

Jona..........after so many years....u got back into the belly of the fish

hmmmmm