The Senator representing Abia North, Orji Kalu, has disclosed that he previously traded in heavy weapons internationally, saying he sold arms to buyers who could afford them before abandoning the business at his parents’ insistence.
Kalu made the revelation during an interview on Arise Television on Monday, while discussing his relationships with former and current South African leaders.
The former Abia State governor said his business interests once extended beyond Nigeria, where he dealt in heavy weapons traded from one country to another.
When asked whether he was an arms dealer, Kalu responded in the affirmative but explained that he eventually quit the business after his parents intervened.
“My parents, my mother, my father came and said I must stop, and I stopped,” he said.
Asked whether he sold weapons to people who intended to use them to kill others, the senator dismissed the suggestion, insisting that his primary interest was making money.
“No, no, no, no, no, no. I was selling guns to make money, whether they blow up, it’s not my business,” he said.
The interviewer also asked whether he supplied weapons to the African National Congress, ANC, during the struggle against apartheid in South Africa.
Kalu denied selling exclusively to the ANC, saying he supplied weapons to anyone willing and able to pay.
“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,” he said.
When asked about the source of the weapons, Kalu declined to provide details, saying, “It’s only my business.”
The discussion also touched on the proliferation of small arms in Nigeria, with the interviewer questioning how his former business related to the country’s security challenges.
However, Kalu maintained that he dealt in heavy weapons rather than small arms, describing the transactions as country-to-country sales.
“No, no, these are heavy arms that were sold country to country,” he said.
Asked specifically whether he sold weapons to Libya under its late leader, Muammar Gaddafi, the senator said he sold to anyone who had the money to buy.
When the interviewer suggested that this meant he had supplied arms to Gaddafi, Kalu responded, “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.”
Beyond his former arms trading activities, Kalu also discussed his longstanding relationships with successive South African presidents, which he traced to his friendship with the country’s former leader, Nelson Mandela.
He said Mandela introduced him to several South African leaders, including former President Thabo Mbeki and incumbent President Cyril Ramaphosa.
According to Kalu, Mandela once explained that Mbeki’s father contributed more to the anti-apartheid struggle than Ramaphosa’s father, which he said influenced the ANC’s decision to select Mbeki over Ramaphosa as Mandela’s running mate.
Kalu added that Mbeki later introduced him to former President Jacob Zuma, with his relationships with South African leaders continuing through successive administrations.
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