Former Abia State Governor and Senator representing Abia North, Orji Uzor Kalu, has admitted that he was once involved in international arms trading, revealing that he sold weapons to anyone willing and financially capable of purchasing them.
Kalu made the revelation during an interview on Arise News, where he discussed his business activities outside Nigeria and his relationships with prominent African political leaders.
During the interview, the former governor was directly asked whether he had operated as an arms dealer, to which he responded affirmatively.
He explained that selling weapons was previously one of his business ventures and that his primary motivation was to make money.
According to him, his parents eventually intervened and persuaded him to quit the business.
“My mother and my father came and said I must stop, and I stopped,” Kalu said.
The senator further indicated that he was not particularly concerned about how buyers intended to use the weapons, insisting that his interest was strictly commercial.
“I was selling guns to make money. Whether they blow [up] people was not my business,” he stated.
When asked whether he supplied weapons to the African National Congress (ANC) during its struggle against apartheid in South Africa, Kalu denied having any specific arrangement with the organisation.
Instead, he maintained that his business was open to any interested buyer.
“No, I was selling to anybody who wants to buy,” he responded.
Kalu also addressed questions about whether he had supplied weapons to former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.
He maintained that he sold arms to anyone who could afford them during the period he was involved in the business.
“To anybody that has money to buy, when I was selling,” he said.
Describing the late Libyan leader, Kalu added that Gaddafi was “a good man”, before saying, “May he rest in peace.”
The interviewer subsequently questioned him about where he sourced the weapons and the identities of his suppliers, particularly amid concerns over the proliferation of small arms and light weapons in Nigeria.
However, Kalu declined to disclose the details, describing the identities of his suppliers as private business information.
The revelation emerged as the senator recounted how his business activities helped him establish relationships with influential South African political figures, including former presidents Nelson Mandela, Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma.
