The Presidency has again waded in to exonerate the President of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, in the alleged controversial $9.3m arms deal in South Africa.
The Senior Special Assistant to President Goodluck Jonathan (Public Communication), Dr. Doyin Okupe, descried linking the respected man of God with the deal as most unfortunate.
Okupe spoke to reporters in Abuja.
According to him, The Founder of the Word of Life Bible Church, Oritsejafor, has been under fire in the social media and from members of the opposition, who have made capital of the involvement of his private jet in the deal.
Despite Oritsejafor’s explanation that the jet, which was given to him by his church, was under lease to an operating company and that he had no control of how it could be used, has not helped to placate the traducers.
Okupe made it categorical that the had no hand in the deal.
“Most Nigerians do not respect the sensibilities of other people. Oritsejafor is the President of CAN and head of all Christians in Nigeria, who is representing at least, 50 per cent of people in this country. When it comes to a man like that, people should be cautious and circumspect,” the presidential aide said.
He added, “The linking of Pastor Oritsejafor with the controversial $9.3m arms deal is the most unfortunate thing. To put the very respectable, responsible, honest and sincere CAN President in this matter is the extreme of mischief. It shows what Nigerians can do. They go to any extent to politicise everything. What bothers me is the manner people want to bring down Pastor Oritsejafor on this matter. It is pure absurdity.
“Oritsejafor has no business in this matter. It is true that he owns the aircraft, but there are over 200 Nigerians, who have jets. Besides those who use them frequently, some give them out to get money and defray costs. If you park your jet, you pay parking charges everyday.
“He gave the jet to a company to manage. The company is managing it and these people gave out the plane. What has this to do with Oritsejafor? If I have many cars at the airport and decide to give one to a car hire service and he decides to carry somebody having Indian hemp, would you link me with the man who gave it out? Excuse me, this is ridiculous.”
He also responded to criticisms that the issue went out of hand because government did not speak on the issue before embarking on the adventure.
Okupe said: “Government cannot share all information about the issues because it is a security matter. It is an issue, which we cannot just bring to the public domain. For goodness sake, we need to have some quiet innocent support. I am surprised that Nigerians want to discuss security issues publicly when a war is still going on.
“These are very serious national security affairs and running a government is not the same thing as running a Shoprite, where everything is on the table and on display. There is nothing shady about the South African deal and the Office of the NSA has done very well because at the appropriate time, they came in that, ‘yes, this money belongs to us and this was what it was meant for’. That explanation itself was okay. There is no hanky- panky on this matter.”
He said the second controversial deal had legitimised the first because it was a normal banking transaction.
“A company was mandated to do a national security assignment for the Federal Government and because of the extant laws in South Africa, that company was unable to deliver its contractual agreement with the Nigerian government. The company wants a refund, which is normal.”
Okupe urged Nigerians not to play politics with issues of national concern and counselled that they should be patriotic in their disposition to sensitive national issues..
