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Iranian charged in Nigeria for illegal weapons export to Gambia
Friday, 26 November 2010 00:30
AFP - A member of Iran's Revolutionary Guard and a Nigerian accomplice
were charged with the illegal shipment of mortars and rockets by a Nigerian court on Thursday. The illegal arms were seized in the port of Lagos in October.A Nigerian court on Thursday charged an Iranian and three Nigerians over an illegal arms shipment including rockets and mortars discovered at the West African country's main
port and sent from Iran.The Iranian, Azim Aghajani, was identified in court papers as a businessman and "member of IRGC" with an address in Tehran.
IRGC is an abbreviation for the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, the military and economic force in Iran. Officials could not be reached to comment on the reference.
Iran has said the arms were being shipped by a private company.
The three Nigerians charged over the shipment denied the allegations, while Aghajani was allowed to delay entering a plea because his lawyer was not with him in court. All were ordered held in custody.
"The accused persons should be remanded in (intelligence agency) custody pending the conclusion of the investigation, and the accused persons should be allowed access to their lawyers while in custody," Magistrate Hafsat Sadiq Soso said.
Court documents alleged Aghajani "conspired to import and did import 13 20-feet containers loaded with assorted calibres of prohibited firearms ..." along with one of the Nigerian suspects.
They also alleged he sought to export the containers along with the three Nigerian suspects.
Nigerian agents seized the weapons at the port in Lagos last month. The containers had been loaded at the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas.
The shipper later sought to have the containers reloaded and sent to Gambia, a tiny West African country wedged inside Senegal.
Nigeria has reported the seizure to the UN Security Council, with Iran under four sets of United Nations sanctions over its nuclear programme. The sanctions include a ban on arms sales.
Nigeria's Foreign Minister Odein Ajumogobia has said a diplomat may have also been linked to the shipment, but authorities could not question him because he had diplomatic immunity that the Iran government had not agreed to waive.
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The Iranian Revolutionary Guards are currently heading the list of terrorists world over. Now yaya has associated with them & tarnish the Gambian-image. The Gambia Echo Newspaper has proven with photographic evidences before that they were also operative in Gambia until the kanilai-butcher banishing them in pretence to cover his arse up. We all know NONE would dare use the Kanilai-state-farm address in ANY importation, especially of illegal weapons without yaya’s consent. Why can’t yaya institute a court action & come clean to clear Gambia’s image if he hasn’t ordered the weapons instead of just severing diplomatic ties in his cover-up as he want the world to believe??? He should know because of this development, he’s now under more intense international surveillance than ever before.
Since you and i cannot run the affairs of the country directly we elect representatives to do it on our behalf. Now if the name of the country is cropping up in serious cases of these nature, the least our representatives ought to do is to seek clarification on our behalf.
Even that huge cocaine seizure has not prodded these no-good representatives into action. In the absence of official clarification, can you blame the rumor mills? Can you stop people from speculating?
Please open your ears and listen until you hear the name Gambia from the Nigerian court as it is already a court case.The Gambia belongs to all of us and not the President, he is only charge of certain responsibilitie s as well as to lead.please try and make Gambia and not to distroy it.
Can we just look into the way you put the address as:
Iranian charged in Nigerian for illegal weapons export to Gambia
Should it not be better when we say: Iranian charged in "NIGERIA" or Nigerian ?
Hope to receiving your promt action on this !
In the service of all I remain !
you sound like someone wit faith on the House we call National Assembly. Gambians, even those that vote for these so-called national assembly members, have since lost trust in them. The reason is obvious.
I am not surprised that your words of reality are touching a few sensitive nerves.
Gambians where is your outrage? Where is your righteous indignation at this endless drama under this puppet master? Those fat middle-aged losers calling themselves Members of Parliament should really bury their heads in shame.
At a time when Gambia's image is being dragged through the mud on all fronts, not one of these representatives of ours is standing up and demanding clarification....FAILURE does not even begin to describe this bunch of retards
At a time when Gambia's image is being dragged through the mud on all fronts, not one of these representatives of ours is standing up and demanding clarification....FAILURE does not even begin to describe this bunch of retards
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