Hussein Abdullahi told The Associated Press that the arms shipment seized October 26 “was not conflicting with the UN sanctions” because Iran and Gambia had signed a secret agreement two years before the UN’s 2010 ban on Iranian arms exports.
However, the UN actually banned Iranian arms exports in a 2007 resolution, before imposing more sanctions in 2010.
Abdullahi said he had spoken to senior officials of the Nigerian government as soon as the shipment was seized and told them that the intercepted cargo was the third of four Gambia-bound shipments originating from Iran.
Nigerian security officials found 13 containers full of 107mm artillery rockets, rifle rounds and other weapons in a shipment marked as containing building materials.
Nigeria has reported Iran to the UN over the shipment and Gambia, which does not admit ordering the arms, has cut all its ties with Tehran, not just diplomatic ties but also economic ties, and ended all Iranian-funded projects in the country.
Almost four months after Nigerian security officials seized the arms shipment, Abdullahi finally broke his silence and admitted that the 13 containers of arms and ammunition indeed came from Iran.
This Day, a Nigerian daily, said Abdullahi told reporters Nigerian authorities were aware of the shipment from the time it was unloaded in Lagos in July 2010 and before they seized it in October. The Nigerian government has said it was warned the shipment was coming and watched it to see who claimed it.
The ambassador queried why the State Security Service (SSS) chose to seize the shipment only after the October 1 bombings in Abuja. Nigerian officials have said they moved then because that was when two Iranians and a group of Nigerians claimed the shipment.
“I had informally informed the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Odein Ajumogobia, and Senate President David Mark that the shipment was meant for Gambia, not Nigeria. I also asked them not to allow people who do not like the good Nigeria-Iran relationship to destroy our relationship with each other. I asked them to urge the Nigerian media to stop speculative stories until investigations were concluded.” The Nigerian media are free, however.
The envoy said no Iranian diplomat was a part of the shipment to Nigeria and denied reports that any suspect was sneaked out of the country during the visit of the Iranian Foreign Minister to Nigeria. News reports have said one of the two Iranians who came to claim the arms shipment had diplomatic immunity and left Nigeria on a plane later with then Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki.
Abdullah admitted that an Iranian businessman, Azim Aghajany, sought refuge in the embassy after the story broke and heat was turned on him.
He, however, insisted that Aghajany had come into Nigeria legally and was transacting the business to tranship the arms to Gambia through legal channels. Aghajany is now in jail while his trial is ongoing. Prosecution documents say he is both a businessman and an officer of the Pasdaran.
The ambassador said, “He came to us and explained the situation. We are here as an embassy to help our nationals. We advised him to stay here. We informed Nigeria’s Foreign Ministry about it and they asked that access be granted to men of the SSS. We worked out modalities for this with Dr Martin [Permanent Secretary of Foreign Affairs] and the SSS came here to talk to Aghajany and later said they wanted him in their office.
“He was invited five times and they later decided to hold him in custody without informing us. We decided not to tell this to the press but our agreement with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was broken,” he said.
As to why the bill of lading listed the contents of the containers as building materials, Abdulla said the company responsible for the shipment in Iran probably decided to do that because of the UN sanctions against Iran since it was doing business with a French shipping company.
“Gambia expelled our diplomat because they felt we had disclosed a confidential agreement which we had. Senegal also temporarily severed ties with us because it wondered why we had to send such a huge shipment of arms to Gambia, which is its neighbor,” he said.
Senegal has resumed normal relations. Gambia has not.
Just after the shipment was revealed, the United States sanctioned two businesses in Gambia that the Americans said were linked to the Lebanese Hezb-ollah. It has never been announced to whom in Gambia the arms were being shipped. Some suspect the Gambia government never knew of the shipment and the arms were passing through Gambia on their way to Hezb-ollah.