The Senator representing Abia North, Orji Kalu, has revealed that he once engaged in the international trade of heavy weapons, selling arms to buyers in different countries before quitting the business at the insistence of his parents. The former Abia State governor made the disclosure during an interview on Arise Television on Monday while discussing his business background and relationships with former and current South African leaders.
When asked whether he was an arms dealer, Kalu answered in the affirmative, saying he stopped after his parents intervened. "Yes, so I stopped because my parents, my mother, my father came and said I must stop, and I stopped," he said.
Kalu dismissed suggestions that he supplied weapons to people who intended to use them to kill others, explaining that his motivation was purely financial. "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 then asked whether he supplied weapons to the African National Congress (ANC) during its struggle against apartheid in South Africa. Kalu said he did not restrict his business to the ANC, explaining that he sold weapons to any buyer who could afford them. "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 said.
Asked about the source of the weapons, the senator declined to provide details, saying, "It's only my business."
The interviewer also questioned how his former arms trade related to Nigeria's current security challenges and the proliferation of small arms. In response, Kalu clarified that the weapons he traded were not small arms but heavy weapons sold between countries. "No, these are heavy arms that were sold country to country," he said.
Kalu was then asked specifically whether he sold weapons to Libya under its late leader, Muammar Gaddafi. He 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 answer meant he had supplied weapons 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."
The senator also spoke about his relationships with successive South African presidents, tracing the connections to his friendship with the late former president Nelson Mandela. According to Kalu, Mandela introduced him to several South African leaders, including former President Thabo Mbeki and incumbent President Cyril Ramaphosa.
He said Mandela once told him that Mbeki's father had contributed more to the anti-apartheid struggle than Ramaphosa's father. The consideration influenced the ANC's decision to select Mbeki ahead of Ramaphosa as Mandela's running mate.
Kalu added that Mbeki later introduced him to former President Jacob Zuma, maintaining that his relationships with South African leaders had continued across successive administrations.