Seized $5.7m: Sambo Dasuki denies any wrongdoing

National Security Adviser, NSA, Col. Sambo Dasuki (rtd) has denied any wrongdoing in the $5.7million arms money seized by South Africa.

Karounwi Adekunle, spokesman to the NSA said the arms deal was legitimate and it was wrong for the South African authorities to confiscate the money.FOLLOW US ON TWITTER @6326david

National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki,rtd
“We want to state clearly that a business transaction actually took place between a legitimate company in Nigeria and another legitimate one in South Africa through the bank.

“In the course of events, the South African company could not perform and decided to refund the money. What is illegitimate in this transaction done through the bank?”

The City Press of South Africa had reported Monday quoting its sister paper,Rapport, that the $5.7million was seized by The Asset Forfeiture Unit of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA).

According to the report, National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki issued the end-user certificate for the transaction.

An entire “shopping list” was supplied with the certificate, which included everything from helicopters to unmanned aircraft, rockets and ammunition.

Sources close to the investigation said the latest transaction was between Cerberus Risk Solutions, an arms broker in Cape Town, and Societe D’Equipments Internationaux, a Nigerian company in Abuja.

An impeccable source said this company paid R60 million into Cerberus’ account at Standard Bank.

Cerberus was previously registered as a broker with the National Conventional Arms Control Committee (NCACC), but the registration expired in May this year.

The marketing and contracting permits also expired at the same time.

The company has since applied for re-registration, but the application lay in the NCACC’s mailbox for more than two months.

Sources told Rapport that Cerberus apparently tried to pay the money back to the Nigerian company, after which the bank became suspicious.

The NPA’s Asset Forfeiture Unit subsequently obtained a court order in the South Gauteng High Court to seize the money.