Senator Orji Kalu admits he was an international arms dealer selling guns to anyone with money

Photo: Senator Orji Uzor Kalu · Source: The Sun (2022 file photo)

The Abia North senator told Arise TV he sold heavy weapons country to country — and that whether they blew people up was ‘not my business’.

Senator Orji Uzor Kalu (Abia North), a former Abia governor, has admitted on Arise Television that he previously traded in heavy weapons internationally, selling to anyone who could pay.

Asked directly whether he was an arms dealer, he said: “Yes, so I stopped because my parents, my mother, my father came and said I must stop, and I stopped.” He added: “No, no, no, no, no, no. I was selling guns to make money, whether they blow up [people], it’s not my business.”

He said he sold to buyers in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Namibia and, when asked about Libya under Muammar Gaddafi, replied: “To anybody that had money to buy.” He clarified the trade was heavy weapons sold country to country, not small arms, and declined to say where he sourced the weapons: “It’s only my business.”

The admission came during a discussion of his longstanding relationships with South African leaders. The interview was recorded on Monday 9 Nov; the clip spread on Tuesday.

The legality of the trade — licences, end-user certificates — and the identity of all buyers are unverified. Kalu did not establish that he supplied weapons to any country during periods when embargoes applied, the ICIR notes. No Senate, APC or security-agency response had been reported at the time of writing.

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