Pastor Oritsejafor (r) and President Jonathan: The President and one of his men?
The President's Men?
When Sahara Reporters, an open-source reportage, online medium, published photos of President Jonathan with Ali Modu Sheriff, accused of sponsoring Boko Haram, on an official visit to Chad, the Federal Government, through its spokespersons and the Nigerian embassy in Chad, offered several different explanations on how Mr Sheriff appeared on President Jonathan's entourage. Some of the explanations seem to clash with each other while others negate governmental and diplomatic procedures. Most analyst decimated the event to the tied hands of President Jonathan by a strong political blackmail from a group to which belongs Ali Sheriff. Ali Sheriff seems to know too much that President Jonathan will not allow published in the public domain, analysts say.
For instance, analysts point, Ali Sheriff knows all about the involvement of certain individuals within and outside the government in the unofficial and criminal purchase, ferrying and distribution of weapons within and outside the Nigerian territory. The most damning report on this claim fell on the Nigerian nation when the South African government announced the arrest of two Nigerians (names withheld at press time) and an Israeli defence contractor, Eyal Mesiaka, who were aboard a private jet owned by Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, President, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, on a mission to purchase weapons worth some $9.3 million, recovered from certain suitcases on the private jet. A second jet on this questionable trip was found to belong to Mr Felix Idiga, said to be the owner of JAFAC Aviation Limited. After some delay, Pastor Oritsejafor owned up to the ownership of the
jet, and the Federal Government of Nigeria, too, accepted ownership of the $9.3 million cash on Pastor Oritsejafor's jet. Then, Pastor Oritsejafor, officials of President Jonathan and even CAN itself started giving explanations which the South African security and diplomatic officials say do not tally with what the three suspects deposited in their statements.
Analysts say the position of President Jonathan and his officers on this boiling issue is deeply flawed. For instance, weapons for a nation are purchased by appropriate military authorities but not by some civilians in a private jet; cash is not usually used in such transactions; the government of President Jonathan has failed to say the source of the cash and why cash of this amount was flown across borders on a private jet against official regulations; the journey itself lacked diplomatic cover, which has now a seriously trampled on international governmental relations and diplomacy. So many flaws, analysts deposit. As at press time, the issue was still gathering political, diplomatic as well as socio-religious momentum while investigations, most especially on the South African side was intensifying. It is noteworthy that the same South African authorities arrested and jailed leader of the militant MEND, Henry Okah, after finding him guilty of certaing bombings in Nigeria's capital city, Abuja. President Jonathan had falsely accused his political opponents, most especially those of the Northern extract, of being behind the bombings only for investigations to find out otherwise to a political trip-over of President
Pastor Oritsejafor : Bearing the Cross and spreading the word. Is he also bearing the guns and spreading the bullets?
19