Former Abia State Governor and Senator representing Abia North, Orji Kalu, has revealed that he previously traded in heavy weapons internationally, saying he sold arms to buyers across several African countries before quitting the business at the insistence of his parents.
Kalu made the disclosure during an interview on Arise Television on Monday, while discussing his relationships with successive South African leaders, including former President Nelson Mandela.
The former governor confirmed that he was once an arms dealer, explaining that his business involved the sale of heavy weapons from one country to another.
When asked directly whether he dealt in arms, Kalu responded in the affirmative but said he eventually abandoned the business after his parents intervened.
“But my parents, my mother, my father came and said I must stop, and I stopped,” he said.
Asked whether he sold weapons to people intending to use them to kill others, the senator dismissed the suggestion, insisting that his motivation was commercial.
“No, no, no, no, no, no. I was selling guns to make money, whether they blow up it’s not my business,” he said.
Links to South Africa
Kalu also denied that his arms business was limited to supplying the African National Congress (ANC) during South Africa’s anti-apartheid struggle.
He said he sold weapons to any buyer who could afford them, mentioning the Democratic Republic of Congo and Namibia as some of the countries where customers sought to purchase arms.
“No, I was selling to anybody who wants to buy. If you have the money, you want to buy in D.R.C, I sell to you, you want to buy in Namibia, you want to buy…” he stated.
When asked about the sources of the weapons, Kalu declined to provide details, saying, “It’s only my business.”
The interviewer also questioned him about the proliferation of small arms in Nigeria and the implications of his former business activities.
However, Kalu maintained that he dealt in heavy weapons traded between countries rather than small arms.
“No, these are heavy arms that were sold country to country,” he said.
Asked specifically whether he sold weapons to Libya under its former leader, Muammar Gaddafi, Kalu said he sold to anyone with the financial capacity to purchase them.
“To anybody that had money to buy,” he responded.
When the interviewer suggested that his statement meant he had supplied arms to Gaddafi, Kalu replied, “May his soul rest in peace. He was a good man. If you have money to buy, when I was selling, I would sell to you.”
