Suspect: We gave police, DSS N1m while smuggling 661 rifles

Mahmud Hassan, one of five men being tried for alleged importation of guns into the country, says the group paid N1 million to security agents to smuggle in gun consignment through Apapa Port, Lagos.

Hassan made the claims in a video played by the prosecution in court on Monday.

The video, said to be recorded while giving his statement when in the custody of the Department of State Services (DSS), was played in a trial-within-trial regarding the case.

Ayokunle Faji, the presiding judge, had ordered that a trial-within-trial be conducted to test the voluntariness of the statement, after Yakubu Galadima, the accused’s counsel, argued he made the statement understand torture.

Hassan said he paid the money to various security agencies, including the DSS, the Nigeria police force.

“I gave N1m to facilitate the moving of the container out of the port, but it is not because of the guns,” he said.

“The examiners were given N200,000; C.I.O., N100,000; enforcement, N200,000; police, SSS, between N20,000, N25,000, and N30,000; the toll gates, N200,000, exit gate, N20,000, and final gate, N50,000.”

Hassan is being tried alongside Oscar Okafor, Donatus Achinulo, Matthew Okoye — reportedly at large — and Salihu Danjuma.

They were first arraigned by the federal government in June 2017, for allegedly importing 661 pump-action rifles from Turkey into the country illegally.

(TheCable)