Mahmud Hassan, one of five men
being tried for alleged importation of guns into the country, says the group
paid N1 million to security agents to smuggle in gun consignment through Apapa
Port, Lagos.
Hassan made the claims in a video
played by the prosecution in court on Monday.
The video, said to be recorded
while giving his statement when in the custody of the Department of State
Services (DSS), was played in a trial-within-trial regarding the case.
Ayokunle Faji, the presiding
judge, had ordered that a trial-within-trial be conducted to test the
voluntariness of the statement, after Yakubu Galadima, the accused’s counsel,
argued he made the statement understand torture.
Hassan said he paid the money to various security
agencies, including the DSS, the Nigeria police force.
“I gave N1m to facilitate the
moving of the container out of the port, but it is not because of the guns,” he
said.
“The examiners were given
N200,000; C.I.O., N100,000; enforcement, N200,000; police, SSS, between
N20,000, N25,000, and N30,000; the toll gates, N200,000, exit gate, N20,000,
and final gate, N50,000.”
Hassan is being tried alongside
Oscar Okafor, Donatus Achinulo, Matthew Okoye — reportedly at large — and
Salihu Danjuma.
They were first arraigned by the
federal government in June 2017, for allegedly importing 661 pump-action rifles
from Turkey into the country illegally.
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