Former minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and frontline member of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Mallam Nasir El-Rufai has berated the president of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor for his assumed care-free approach to the management of his private jet, which was used in a controversial arms deal in South Africa.

Oritsejafor had on Tuesday admitted ownership of a private aircraft that was seized by South African authorities on Monday after it was caught with two suitcases stacked with $9.3million cash, with alleged evidence that the money was meant for the purchase of arms.

A statement from Eagle Air, a company in which the general overseer of the Word of Life Bible Church owns substantial number of shares, admitted Oritsejafor’s interests in the airline, but said it leased the plane to Green Coast. Green Coast in turn, acknowledged hiring the plane out for the trip to South Africa.

But the federal government is reported to be working currently to secure the release of the plane from South African authorities with claims that it was in the centre of the arms deal.

However, in a statement yesterday, El-Rufai said unable to shake off his connection to the plane, Oritsejafor had resorted to abuse and vilification, noting that if he was more reflective, he would be pondering how, of all the private jets available in Nigeria, it was his that was involved in a covert arms purchase scandal.

A strong voice from the opposition party, the former FCT minister urged Nigerians to “be vigilant in these troubled times,” adding that “the tragedy of mindless terror should not be allowed to become an endless catastrophe because of narrow political calculations.”

He continued, “Since abuse is not argument and is incapable of displacing fact, Oritsejafor may care to answer if the jet involved in the scandal is the same one that was “donated” to him in 2012? Did he register it as a commercial aircraft or is the plane illegally moonlighting as one? Has he ever reflected on the impropriety of mixing his religious role with politics? “Having strayed into politics, and an irresponsible variant at that, can he expect the veneration enjoyed by his predecessors such as Cardinals Olubunmi Okogie and John Onaiyekan? Why is he the first CAN leader to provoke pitiful mirth and amusement when he is not being derided as a tragedy, a sort of Ichabod, desperate to separate glory from a revered body?”

El Rufai further stated that it was pertinent that the federal government reflect on its role in this episode. Noting that Nigeria needed to bolster its military and security forces with the material resources they need to defeat insurgency and restore security to every inch of its territory, which would require arms imports, El Rufai insisted that it was inappropriate for the federal government to violate the arms export regulations of other countries in this endeavour.

“Such conduct invariably leads to suspicions that such covert arms procurement may not be for purposes of national security. “This instance of arms procurement outside official channels amidst an escalating insurgency must concern every patriot,” he said.