South African Court Supports Seizure Of Nigeria' $9.3M

South Africa has seized the $9.3 million
Nigerian cash flown abroad a private jet into its
capital, Johannesburg, from Abuja early this
month.
Two Nigerians and an Israeli were travelling
with the plane's crew at the time the cash,
which was not declared, was found on the
plane.
South African security and Nigeria have
launched an investigation into what transpired.
The explanation from Nigeria that the money
was meant for arms purchase for the Nigeria
intelligence agencies, has been rejected by
South Africa's Asset Forfeiture Unit (AFU) and
the National Prosecuting Authority of South
Africa (NPA).
The NPA, in a statement, according to online
publication Premium Times, said the manner in
which the money was brought into the country
breached the laws that deal with the transfer of
foreign exchange of such proportion. "The
money was initially detained by the South
African Revenue Service (SARS) as it was not
disclosed or declared at customs, and was
above the prescribed legal limit for the amount
of cash that may be brought into the country,"
it said in a statement.
The NPA, according to the medium, said its
investigation showed that Tier One Services
Group, the firm the Nigerian government
claimed it wanted to procure the arms from, is
not authorised to sell or rent military
hardware.
"In court papers, the NPA submitted evidence
that Tier One is not registered with the
National Conventional Arms Control
Committee and is thus not authorised to enter
into any agreements regarding the sale and/or
rental of military equipment," the statement
read.
Tier One has apparently issued an invoice to a
Cyprus based company, ESD International
Group Ltd, ESD, in respect of the procurement
of armaments and helicopters to be delivered
to Nigeria.
However, South African investigators said the
time when the invoice was prepared and the
time the money was brought in threw up some
serious issues of its true intent.
The money was ferried to South Africa less
than a week from the date the invoice was
prepared (September 8, 2014). The
involvement of a Cyprus based company also
heightens the suspicion that this may be a case
of classical money laundering. Cyprus is known
for its secretive banking system.
The NPA added that the transaction did not
follow normal procedure in the procurement
of the kind of equipment it was alleged to have
been meant for.
The Senate yesterday summoned National
Security Adviser (NSA) Col. Sambo Dasuki (rtd),
Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshall Alex
Badeh and Chief of Army Staff Lt.-Gen.
Kenneth Minimah over the smuggled $9.3
million cash.
Chairman, Senate Committee on Defence,
Senator George Sekibo, said those invited to
appear before his committee on Tuesday would
brief members on the incident.
He said: " I don't want to pre-empt issues
because I have not heard details about the
issue but they will be here on Tuesday."
On the soldiers sentenced to death, Sekibo said
he was not surprised that death sentence was
passed on the 12 soldiers because before they
joined military, they were aware of the
implication of being involved in mutiny.
He added that before the judgment was
passed, the army must have carried out their
investigation on the matter

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