Fani-Kayode On Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, $9.3m Arms Scandal

Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor

NewsNaij.com reports: Femi Fani-Kayode offers his opinion on the $9.3m arms scandal and has a few things to say about Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, the President of the Christian Association of Nigeria.

Mr. Fani-Kayode, in his opinion piece titled The Cash, The Jet and Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, notes that a certain Nigerian-owned jet that was “found loaded with millions of dollars and in the process of procuring arms and a fighter helicopter for the Nigerian military and security agencies,” got a great deal of attention.
He then reminds his readers that he was once a Minister of Aviation in Nigeria. Hence, he assures that “flying of large sums of cash by security and intelligence agencies for the purchase of arms in a time of war and conflict is something that is quite normal and happens quite often.
“Obviously in the case of the jet that flew to South Africa with 9.3 million USD there must have been a breakdown of communication between the South African authorities and ours,” Mr. Fani-kayode explains, “and a few lapses in procedure here …which is what has led to the seizure of the money and all the ensuing suspicion and confusion.
“However the idea that there was anything untoward or sinister about the whole transaction has no basis in logic, sense or rationality. Perhaps the only failing was the fact that the cash was not declared to South African Customs as is required by law.
“The fact that our intelligence agencies have said that they were the ones that sent the money and that they have told us what it was for is good enough for me. It appears to me that this was a lawful and legitimate exercise, and that there is nothing for anyone to worry about.”
Mr. Fani-Kayode assures this is the usual pattern of operation employed by intelligence and security agencies worldwide.

Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor

“Suffice it to say that anyone that is in the process of getting arms to help our boys at the war front to fight Boko Haram and protect our citizens and our country ought to be regarded as heroes and not villains.
“Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, the President of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has been vilified, maligned and treated with the utmost disdain and contempt in this and other matters by elements within the leading opposition party in our country.
“Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor is not an arms smuggler, a money launderer, a murderer or a Boko Haram sponsor.
“On the South African matter, it is clear that Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor was not the owner of the 9.3 million USD, and neither was he aware that the cash was being flown on the plane. Though he has confirmed that he was the owner of the plane, he has also pointed out the fact that he had leased it out to a company on a long-term basis who were themselves subleasing it out to other companies for regular trips. He has also said that he had no idea about who they were subleasing it to, where they were flying it to or who or what they were carrying in it in any of their operations.”
Fani-Kayode goes on to accuse “certain elements in the opposition and the Nigerian media” of “trying to divide our ranks and denigrate us”.
“Worst of all it is an affront to the Christian community in Nigeria and a reckless provocation,” he adds. “It is a grave insult to the Christian community for anyone to suggest that the leader of the umbrella organisation of the over 80 million-strong Christian faithfuls in Nigeria is a sponsor of a vicious and barbaric Islamist sect that has killed and abducted more Christians and burnt more churches than any other terrorist organisation in the history of the African continent.
“It is only in Nigeria that the leadership of the Christian community would be accused, by a supposedly serious-minded opposition, of wanting to wipe out the Christian faith, wanting to kill all the Christians and moderate Muslims in the country and wanting to establish an Islamic fundamentalist state where 6th century sharia law applies.”