Nigeria on Wednesday accused South Africa of blocking
a legal arms purchase and threatened retaliation against
major South African companies, including telecom giant
MTN, if the spat is not resolved.
A top official in the office of Nigeria’s National Security
Advisor (NSA) told AFP that the country had an
agreement to buy $5.7 million (4.5 million euros)
worth of military hardware in a deal brokered by a
South African firm.
The official, who asked that his name be withheld, said
Pretoria had frozen the cash wired to the South African
firm’s account.
A spokesman at South Africa’s National Prosecuting
Authority was not immediately available for comment,
but the asset freeze has been widely reported in both
Nigerian and South African media.
“The issue could affect bilateral relations between
Nigeria and South Africa,” the NSA official said.
He specifically mentioned MTN — a South African
based mobile phone and Internet provider with tens of
millions of subscribers in Nigeria — as a company that
could be targeted in a reprisal.
“You cannot be making so much money from Nigeria
and then turn around and embarrass the people,” he
further said.
The official told AFP that Nigerian President Goodluck
Jonathan called his South African counterpart Jacob
Zuma to inform him about the purchase and Abuja
was therefore surprised to learn that the deal had been
blocked.
Zuma spokesman Mac Maharaj had no comment on
the reported conversation between the two leaders, but
told AFP “the president is not a part of (the)
committee” that reviews arms deals.
The NSA official did not identify the South African
broker or specify what weapons Nigeria was trying to
buy.
The website of South Africa’s City Press named the
broker as the Cape Town based Cerberus Risk Solutions
but that could not be independently verified.
The development comes roughly three weeks after
South African customs officials seized $9.3 million in
cash stashed in the luggage of two Nigerians and an
Israeli.
South Africa’s prosecution authority said there was
evidence indicating those funds were intended to
purchase armaments to be used in Nigeria.
The Nigerian security official declined to comment on
whether the cash found in the plane last month was
part of a weapons purchase, but insisted the $5.7
million deal frozen by South Africa was a legal arms
“transaction through a bank”.
Nigerian lawmakers last month approved a request
from Jonathan for a more than $1 billion loan to fight
Boko Haram extremists.
Analysts saw the president’s request as a tacit
acknowledgement that the military is overmatched
against the Islamists, who are thought to control more
than two dozen towns and villages in the embattled
northeast.
Troops have refused to deploy for offensives against
the insurgents on grounds that they lack proper
equipment.
