Nigeria And South Africa Traded Dead Bodies Of South Africans Killed At Synagogue Church In Exchange For Money Seized In Illegal Arms Deal

While Nigerians await closure on the
$15 million arms money seized by
South African prosecutors, authorities
in the two countries appear to have
agreed on an unholy barter to exchange bodies
of South Africans who died in the Synagogue
Church collapse in Nigeria, for South African-
made arms needed by Nigeria to fight Boko
Haram, The Mail and Guardian, one of South
Africa’s most respected newspapers, has
reported.
President Goodluck Jonathan visit to
Synagogue
South Africa confiscated the money from arms
brokers who travelled there to procure arms for
the Nigerian military.
Mail and Guardian said it saw two letters written
by Jeff Radebe, the South African special envoy
in charge of facilitating the repatriation of the
bodies, to JP “Torie” Pretorius, of the
Directorate for Priority Crime Investigations, also
known as the Hawks, and Dumisani Dladla,
head of South African National Conventional
Arms Control Committee, NCACC, secretariat,
seeking to assist the Nigerian government to get
the weapons, despite two court orders freezing
the money and continued probe into the dubious
deals by investigators.
On November 16, with the supervision of Mr.
Radebe, 74 bodies were repatriated to South
Africa following the September collapse of the
Synagogue Church in Lagos, Nigeria.
Majority of the dead were South Africans who
visited the church hoping to receive miracles
from the founder, T. B. Joshua.
Many in South Africa hailed Mr. Radebe as a
hero for being able to secure the release of the
bodies.
But the news that he might have entered into a
sinister swap agreement with Nigerian officials
to accelerate the return of the bodies has cast a
pall over that heroic persona.
The South African government has dismissed
the Mail and Guardian’s account as an attempt
to “discredit the collaborative efforts of the
South African and Nigerian governments to
repatriate the bodies of South Africans that died
in Nigeria”.
But the paper, in a follow-up report, said it
stood by its findings, as they were backed by
documents and confirmations from government
officials.
“It includes correspondence from Minister
Radebe to the Hawks and internal emails from
senior government officials,” Mail and Guardian
editor, Angela Quintal, said. “The email trail
clearly shows that these officials were
discussing the minister’s request that the
investigation be halted and that they were
concerned about this.”
In the letters Mail and Guardian quoted, Mr.
Radebe, who is also the Chairman of NCACC
and a minister in the South African presidency,
tried hard to whitewash the deals as legitimate.
“(It) was, in fact, a legitimate requirement from
the government of Nigeria,” he was quoted to
have written. “Although the required
administrative processes were not adhered to at
the time, the government of South Africa deems
it a bona fide error.”
He told Mr. Dladla to “laise” with Mr. Pretorius
to “obtain all relevant information in order to
assist the parties involved to apply for the
necessary authorisations in compliance with the
National Conventional Arms Control Amendment
Act (no 73 of 2008);” adding that “Upon receipt
of the required permit applications, the national
conventional arms control committee will
favourably consider ex-post facto approval
thereof.”
Though Mr. Radebe claimed that the attempt to
help Nigeria clean up the arms deal was
collectively agreed at an NCACC meeting, other
members of the committee are distancing
themselves from the agreement.
Also, while he claimed, through his
spokesperson, that the committee agreed to
help Nigeria legitimise the deals at its October
30 meeting, the letter seen by Mail and
Guardian was dated October 6, three weeks
before the meeting was held, the newspaper
said.
Mr. Radebe also said that the repatriation of the
bodies lay under the exclusive jurisdiction of the
Lagos State government and “had no relation to
the arms matter.”
He said he drafted the letters to Hawks and the
directorate for conventional arms control “after
consultation with the Federal Republic of
Nigeria”.
Mail and Guardian quoted a cabinet minister,
who is also a member of the arms committee,
as saying that Mr. Radebe singlehandedly wrote
the letter without consulting other committee
members. He said Mr. Radebe merely sought
their approval after the letter had been
delivered.
“Jeff cut this deal all by himself. He wanted to
claim credit for cracking this matter [securing
the return of bodies,” said the government
official. “His colleagues who serve on the arms
committee are distancing themselves from the
whole thing. They are refusing to back him on
this one. If we allow Nigeria to get away with
this, it means any country can come and do the
same.”
Mr. Radebe appeared to be completely isolated
on the matter as prosecutors said they are not
relenting in their effort at getting to the bottom of
the matter. Paul Ramaloko, a captain with the
Hawks said his organisation is forging ahead
with its investigation and that he knew nothing
about the attempt of Mr. Radebe to withdraw
the charges.
Mail and Guardian said Mr. Radebe’s letters are
being discussed within the country’s diplomatic
circles with officials wondering what to do with
it.
An email the newspaper claimed it saw read:
“What concerns the NCAI [National Arms Control
Inspectorate] about this case is that there are no
documents … end-user certificate, or otherwise
… from the Nigerian government that they had
ordered the arms and ammunition. Thus far,
there is no proof that has been provided that the
Nigerian government ordered these goods or is
in any way involved in this deal.”
The officials who wrote the email added that,
having bought arms from South Africa before,
“the responsible officials in that country
understand the administrative and legal process
that South Africa requires”.
Nigeria’s National Security Adviser, Sambo
Dasuki, could not be reached for comments. His
spokesperson, Adebisi Adekunle, could not also
be contacted as calls to his telephone were
unsuccessful.
A spokesperson to President Goodluck
Jonathan, Reuben Abati, did not also respond
to calls to his phones.