The importer of the 2,671 pump action rifles illegally brought in from Turkey but intercepted by the Nigeria Customs Service on four different occasions in 2017 has been unearthed.
A submission made on Tuesday by the Solicitor-General of the Federation and Permanent-Secretary, Federal Ministry of Justice, Dayo Apata, named IPOB former leader Nnamdi Kanu as the importer.
Apata said it while he was opposing IPOB’s motion filed before the Federal High Court in Abuja to challenge the court’s order proscribing it in September.
The Federal Government disclosed this in a counter-affidavit filed by the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation and which was deposed to by a litigation officer in the Department of State Services, Mr. Ayuba Adam.
Adam, who disclosed in the counter-affidavit that IPOB was a violent group pretending to be non-violent, said a Turkish citizen, Abdukadir Erahraman, visited Kanu sometimes in July 2017 when he was urging “Biafrans to rise up and fight a good fight for freedom.”
Drawing a link between the Turkish citizen’s visit to Kanu and the arms smuggled into Nigeria, the counter-affidavit added that the NCS had intercepted 2,671 rifles smuggled from Turkey in 2017 alone.
“That the Nigeria Customs Service had on four occasions this year intercepted pump action rifles totalling 2,671 illegally imported into the country. Copies of the report on arms smuggling is attached herewith and marked as Exhibit FGN 2A and 2B, ” the affidavit stated in part.
But IPOB, through a further affidavit filed by its counsel, Ifeanyi Ejiofor, on Monday, denied any link to the intercepted weapons.
The further affidavit stated, “That contrary to the erroneous deposition in paragraph 6(h) of the applicant/respondent’s counter-affidavit which is denied, the alleged pump action rifles totalling 2,671, illegally imported into the country from Turkey, was not directly traced to Nnamdi Kanu or anyone associated with him.”
But in a motion filed by the group before the same judge on September 22, the group contended that the proscription order was unconstitutional.
The motion was anchored on 13 grounds, first of which was that the proscription order was made without jurisdiction “as the order was granted against an entity unknown to law”.
The AGF office subsequently filed a counter-affidavit justifying the proscription order of the court.
Justice Kafarati heard the two parties on Tuesday after which he adjourned until January 17 for ruling on whether or not IPOB should be proscribed.
But the Federal Government insisted on Tuesday that IPOB was a violent organisation.
It stated Kanu was following the path that led to the Rwandan genocide by referring to Nigeria as a zoo.