Senator Orji Uzor Kalu has disclosed that he previously traded heavy weapons internationally, saying he sold to buyers in different countries before quitting the business at the insistence of his parents.
The Abia North senator made the revelation during an interview on Arise Television on Monday, while discussing his business history and relationships with South African political leaders.
Asked whether he had been an arms dealer, Kalu answered in the affirmative and said his parents eventually persuaded him to stop.
“Yes, so I stopped because my parents, my mother, my father came and said I must stop, and I stopped,” he said.
Kalu said his motivation for selling weapons was financial gain, dismissing a question about whether he supplied arms to people intending to kill others.
“No, no, no, no, no, no. I was selling guns to make money, whether they blow up it’s not my business,” he said.
Asked whether he supplied weapons to the African National Congress (ANC) during its struggle against apartheid in South Africa, Kalu said he sold to any buyer who could afford them.
He cited the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Namibia as countries where buyers could obtain weapons from him, adding that he would not disclose where he sourced the arms.
“It’s only my business,” he said.
Kalu also insisted that the weapons he traded were heavy arms sold between countries, rather than small firearms.
Asked whether he had sold weapons to Libya under its late leader, Muammar Gaddafi, the senator again said he sold to anyone with the financial means to buy.
“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,” he said.
The senator also discussed his relationships with successive South African presidents, which he traced to his friendship with the late Nelson Mandela.
Kalu said Mandela introduced him to former South African President Thabo Mbeki and current President Cyril Ramaphosa.
He further claimed that Mandela had told him Mbeki’s father contributed more to the anti-apartheid struggle than Ramaphosa’s father, a consideration Kalu said influenced the ANC’s choice of Mbeki over Ramaphosa as Mandela’s running mate.
Kalu added that Mbeki later introduced him to former South African President Jacob Zuma.
