In a statement issued in Abuja yesterday by its national publicity secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the APC also called on the National Assembly to launch an urgent investigation into the issue, saying the silence of the peoples' representatives on the issue was deafening, unfathomable and unacceptable.
It said there is no doubt that the president was at the centre of the whole issue, considering the presidential treatment given to the plane and its cargo, since the plane departed from the Presidential wing of the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja, away from the reach of the Nigerian Customs Service which could not, therefore, have cleared the plane and its passengers.
''It is absolutely urgent for President Jonathan to clear the air on this alleged off-the-shelf equipment or arms purchase, which runs against all known protocol for such purchases anywhere in the world. Military equipment and weapons are not bean cakes to be purchased by the roadside. There are globally-acceptable protocols for such purchases by governments, otherwise what differentiates a government from an insurgent group that is shopping for arms?
''Is the Jonathan Administration not aware that the UN General Assembly on April 2, 2013, adopted a landmark Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) precisely to regulate the international trade in conventional weapons by avoiding the kind of roadside purchase that the Nigerian government is said to have been involved in? Though the ATT has not come into effect, the fact that Nigeria is among the few countries to have signed and ratified the treaty shows that the country is concerned by unregulated arms trade."
The party said the resort to ''procedural error'' to explain away the whole issue cannot work because Nigerian authorities cannot pretend not to be aware that currency brought into or taken from South Africa is monitored by law, and that anyone bringing into that country more than R25,000 in South African currency or $10,000 or their equivalent in foreign currency must declared such.
It said those using ''procedural error'' as an alibi are being deceitful.
"This is because if entering or leaving a country with undeclared $9.3 million is mere ''procedural error'', why was Sule Lamido's son convicted for not declaring a mere $50,000 at the Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport?" it queried.
APC said, however, that in the spirit of fairness, it has decided to give President Jonathan and his government the opportunity to make urgently-needed clarifications by answering a number of questions relating to the $9.3 million scandal: Is the money indeed meant to purchase a helicopter as has been reported? To which arm of the government or security force does the money belong? Who appropriated it and for what purpose? Why was the money being ferried in cash by the same government that has been spending huge time and money to promote a cashless policy? Is the resort to cash to avoid a paper trail for the transaction, in which case it is illegal?"
''Mr. President, we are aware that each arm of security has an account with the CBN for the purpose of arms purchase and such transactions are properly documented, so why was this not the case in this instance?
'Mr. President, why did it take your government all of 10 days to admit its involvement in this scandal, considering that the embarrassing incident
happened since September 5 and was not known until September 15? Does this saga not give credence to the widely held view that you are indeed benefitting from the Boko Haram insurgency and that you have deliberately allowed it to escalate to this level?
''Mr. President, has this saga not confirmed the suspicion that your 2015 reelection bid has been factored into your handling of the Boko Haram insurgency? Has this saga not given more credence to revelations that the sponsors of Boko Haram are those closest to the President? Has this saga not finally confirmed that the President knows more than he is telling the nation about the sudden escalation of the Boko Haram insurgency, especially in the run up to the 2015 elections?
''Mr. President, has this saga not confirmed that powerful forces in your administration are all working in concert to use the Boko Haram insurgency to secure tenure extension for President Jonathan? Is not clear now why the Senate President infamously declared two days ago that election is not on the table since the country is in a state of war? Have we not been proven right in our declaration at the panel discussion in the British House of Commons on September 8, 2014, that the Jonathan administration will attempt to cash in on the Boko Haram insurgency to postpone elections?'' it asked.
The party said the answers to the questions raised would go a long way in showing Nigerians that their government is not clandestinely buying equipment and weapons to fuel the Boko Haram insurgency and then profit from its own act of perfidy.