One of the suspects arrested for illegally importing 661 pump action rifles into the country, Mahmud Hassan has said security agencies including the police and Department of State Services (DSS) were paid N1 million to bring the consignment in through the Apapa Port, Lagos.
Hassan is being tried alongside Oscar Okafor, Donatus Achinulo, Matthew Okoye – who is at large – and Salihu Danjuma in connection with the case.
But in a hearing on Monday in the trial-within-trial ordered by Justice Ayokunle Faji, the suspect in a video played by the prosecution related how the N1 million was dispensed.
The video was said to have been recorded while the suspect was in the custody of the Department of State Services (DSS).
He said in the video, “I gave N1m to facilitate the moving of the container out of the port, but it is not because of the guns.
“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.”
Justice Faji had ordered the trial-within-trial to determine if the statement obtained from the suspect was indeed obtained under duress as claimed by his counsel, Yakubu Galadima, who said his client made the statement under torture.
Hassan and co. were first arraigned in June 2017 by the Federal Government for importing the illegal consignment from Turkey into Nigeria.
The consignment was intercepted by men of the Nigerian Customs Service on Sunday, January 22.