The Iranian Azim Aghajani charged
with unlawful importation of firearms and explosives to Nigeria yesterday told
a Federal High Court in Lagos that he didn’t know he was carrying bombs and
rockets until he was arrested.
Aghajani was charged alongside a
Nigerian, Ali Jega, and both accused are standing trial before Justice
Okechukwu Okeke, on a five-count charge of unlawful importation of arms and
explosives to Nigeria.
At the resumed hearing of the case,
Aghajani, who was led in evidence by his counsel, Mr Chris Uche (SAN), told the
court that prior to the engagement of his services by Behimen Trading company
in Iran, for the shipment of a 13 by 20 feet container, he had never been to
Lagos.
He said he was engaged to do a
transhipment of the container from the Nigerian port to the Gambia.
He told the court that the first
problem he encountered during the transshipment was that in the bill of lading,
the name of the consignee and destination of the consignment were missing.
He said since he was disturbed by
this discovery, he had written to Behimen Trading company in Iran, who owed the
consignment and sought to be transshipped but had received no reply.
The Iranian further told the court
that all the while, he was never aware of the content of the container, but had
only dealt with the bill of lading in which it was stated that the consignment
consisted building materials.
“From the content of the bill of
lading, I concluded that there was no unlawful item in the container. I was not
opportuned to see the content of the consignment until I was apprehended at the
Naval ordinance at Apapa, where the content of the container was revealed to
contain arms and explosives.
“I sincerely never knew of the
content of that consignment, neither did I make any representation that the
consignment belonged to me” Aghajani testified.
He said that before his apprehension,
he had employed the services of one Kingsley, to whom he had explained the
content of the bill of lading.
According to Aghajani, Kingsley said
he had communicated with the Nigerian Customs Service, and was now making
preparations for the safe transshipment of the consignment.
Justice Okeke adjourned the case to
today for continuation of hearing.
The accused were arraigned on March
7, 2011 on a five-count charge bordering on unlawful importation of firearms,
explosives and ammunition into the country.
The prosecutor, Mr Maduakor
Livingstone told the court that the accused were apprehended by custom officers
on July 17, 2010, for illegally importing a 13 by 20 feet container loaded with
arms, ammunitions, explosives and rockets.
He also told the court that the
accused had also made a false declaration in their bill of lading, that the
container contained ‘glass wool’, and pallet of stones contrary to section 161
of the Custom and Excise Management Act 2004.
He told the court that the alleged
offences contravened sections 3, 14, 18, and 47 of the firearms (special
provisions) act, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004.
Though the accused pleaded not guilty
to the charge, they were ordered to be remanded in prison custody. The trial
judge said he took the decision to have them remanded in prison custody in the
wake of recent developments and the sensitive nature of the case.
No comments:
Post a Comment