Lagos — The Ukrainian aircraft seized at the Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport on Tuesday is suspected of having links with Niger Delta militants, THISDAY was informed yesterday.
The aircraft was reportedly loaded with 18 crates of arms and ammunition when it was impounded by security agents, although there is yet no official statement on the development.
The Directorate of Military Intelligence (DMI) has taken over investigation from the State Security Service (SSS), the newspaper gathered.
It had been reported that the aircraft might have made an emergency stop in Nigeria because of technical problems on its way to Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, but security sources said that the suggestion may not hold water.
Some of the documents and weapons said to have been recovered by men of the Joint Task Force (JTF) during their raid on militants' Camp 5 allegedly established that Ukraine was a major source of arms and ammunition to the militants.
The sources said intelligence officers are working on the theory that arms were supplied to the militants from Ukraine via Malabo, where they are believed to have a strong network for the weapons they are using in their face-off with the Nigerian military.
Last month, gunmen launched an assault on the Presidential Palace in Equatorial Guinea. It was initially thought to be a coup attempt but the Malabo authorities denied it, accusing Nigerian militants of perpetrating the act.
The gunmen, who stormed Malabo in several gunboats, attacked the presidential palace from the country's territorial waters around which Equatorial Guinea shared maritime boundary with Nigeria.
According to the government of Equatorial Guinea, "our country was once again the victim of an attack by the rebels of the Niger Delta on the city of Malabo. The Niger Delta crisis is now a major threat to our country. A contingent of rebel terrorists from the Niger Delta arrived in numerous boats and tried to invade the capital city of Malabo, with the aim of taking and destroying the presidential palace".
It was also being discussed in security circles that the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) might be behind the arms importation because of the militants' group threat to attack Northern Nigeria for not supporting MEND's campaign for "justice and equity" in the oil-producing region.
All the theories are being explored by the investigators, THISDAY learnt, even as it has now emerged that the Ukrainian embassy in Nigeria may be making moves to intervene in the matter.
It also emerged yesterday that seven Ukrainians, not four, were arrested on board the aircraft.
A Customs officer, who was said to have tried to clear the "cargo", is also in detention, although other sources said it was a clearing agent named Sylvester, who allegedly also works with one of the airlines in the country, is the one in detention.
Security officers have been deployed in the airport, while the office of the airport commandant of has become a "no go" area to journalists.
The impounded aircraft with registration number MEM 4-060 (UR-CAK) is still parked at the airport.
All efforts to speak with the airport commandant, Group Captain U. Abagboyi, were in vain. However, the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) Manager of the Airport, Mr. N. R. Odibukuma, confirmed to reporters the seizure of the aircraft.
Top military sources disclosed that the SSS was initially handling investigations but on the order of the Presidency, handed over to the DMI with a mandate to unravel the mystery. The Nigerian who gave permission to the aircraft to land is still with the SSS, explaining why he chose to act unilaterally without confirming with his superior officers.
The source disclosed that some of the weapons and ammunition on board include howitzers, rifles, machine guns, rocket launchers and mortars.
Trouble started for the crew after refuelling when officials of the Customs and Immigration Services reportedly observed some suspicious information supplied by the crew in the flight discharge form, and strongly demanded to know the content of the plane following the crew's refusal to declare its content in the form accompanying the cargo.
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Lies uopn lies upon lies! The claim that a rag tag army of freedom fighters from the Niger-Delta owns this armament is not true. This is similar to "Calling a dog a bad name so as to kill it". These innocent boys of my tribe are forced to fight with their bare hands, if possible. But, they donot own anything worthwhile to afford such high level expense. All they can afford to salvage my tribe from the "Ball Crushing" act of the Feds is a few domestically obtained waepons of low grade.
Why would the Ukrainian Government allow itself to be used by "elements" within its system to supply arms and ammunitions to the already volatile situation in the Niger Delta, if this is proven to be the case? Who is paying for these arms? Who, amongst our Nigerian population would take on the responsibility of going to acquire arms to aid and abet the killing of other Nigerian citizens? Are we re-fighting the Biafran War again under the guise of the Niger Delta crises?
To be bold enough to venture into another country in search of arms to kill fellow Nigerian citizens should be considered a treasonable offence. Whoever engages is such acts of insurrection, if found guilty, should automatically get the death penalty.
During the Nigeria/Biafran ideological conflagration, we lost nearly 2-Million of our brothers and sisters. The beneficiaries of that conflict took control of the Nigerian Government and its resources, and are today multi-billionaires in dollar terms. Those who prosecuted the war became enboldened to steal blind the vast resources and wealth of the country. They intentionally refused to disarm the vanquished because they knew full well that future conflicts would arise, and such would cause the foreign establishments in the aggrieved areas to further seek refuge in safers zones like the West and the North, thus leaving the oil-rich areas awash with University Graduates without jobs, penniless and hopeless.
The planners of the Nigerian war against its citizens in the East and in the South-South had warned the Europeans operating in these zones to make Lagos their permanent bases of operations. The Europeans, for a short while, moved their operations to Lagos, until the war was over. It became economically unfeasible for them to continue their shuttle services from their bread and butter stronghold to Lagos or the far regions of the North to conduct their businesses. Some decided to move back to their bases of operations, and others decided to conduct their businesses from their remote safe havens.
For those who dared to go back to their bases of operations, the planners of the war decided to re-energize their criminal connections to increase their levels of harrasement of foreigners operating in these zones, which they hoped would eventually cause them to go back to Lagos or the North. The result is the calculated intimidations and kidnappings and extortions purely orchestrated by our so-called leaders who knew full well the reasons for the concerted harrasements of these foreigners operating in our country. I am certain that if the Nigerian Nation wanted to put an end to these problems, they could do it so easily. Nigerians are not violent by nature. However, the levels of coercion meted out to these educated and unemployed miscreants by those in authority should be something the National Assembly should look into and properly investigate. Somebody is benefitting immensely from the problems errupting from the Niger Delta, and they are NOT Niger Deltans.
Although, the points raised in this article or commentary are nothing new, the President needs to make public the information obtained by the Nigerian soldiers from the camps they raided. Those whose activities are deemed instrumental to fostering the unrest in the region should quickly be prosecuted and an example set, so as to discourage others from attempting the same. But, to withhold the information without making same public, would seem to embolden these perpetrators, ad infinitum.
Simple answer the Ukrianians are Europeans, and like any typical European Nation they do not care..As far as they are concerned, if Africans want to dicapitate themselves with landmines and kill them selves with gums and what have you that is their problem.