The Coordinator, Ijaw Monitoring Group, IMG, Comrade Joseph Evah, has described the attack on the President of Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, by the Arewa Consultative Forum, ACF, and some groups over the $9.3 million cash seized in South Africa, as hasty and barbaric as investigations by the South African Government and the Senate of Nigeria, who had commenced investigations, is still ongoing.
The South African authorities had seized the cash because it was not declared when it was ferried into the country by a private jet owned by the CAN president. Pastor Oritsejafor, in his defence following the public outrage that greeted the scandal, claimed the jet was leased out, therefore, he could not be held liable for its operations while the lease lasted.
Meanwhile, the federal government has claimed ownership of the cash, saying it was meant to purchase military hardware to help it in the war against insurgency.
Evah, who was the Coordinator of Non-Indigenes for the Actualization of June 12, during the June 12, 1993 struggle, in a statement, said: “Recently, Pastor Oritsejafor set up a private university in Delta State, if tomorrow a staff of the university uses the facility to engage in a questionable activity, would that mean blackmailing the owner of the university as a criminal? This concerted condemnation of an illustrious son of the Niger Delta without fair hearing in a serious matter that is attracting international attention is unacceptable to our people”.
