ABUJA: Iran has promised cooperation in a probe of an illegal arms shipment discovered in Lagos and sent from an Iran, Nigeria’s foreign minister said Friday after meeting his Iranian counterpart.
Iran’s cooperation will include granting Nigerian authorities access to an Iranian believed to have taken refuge in the Iranian embassy in Abuja, Foreign Minister Odein Ajumogobia told journalists.
“One of the individuals connected to the shipment was an Iranian national who we understand from security reports took refuge in the Iranian embassy,” Ajumogobia told reporters. He said he held “very productive” talks with Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki on Thursday night in Abuja.
After the meeting, Mottaki “immediately directed that access be given to our security agencies to interview this individual who may be able to throw more light on the circumstances of the shipment, its destination and why we have the Nigerian consignee.”
“If Nigeria finds that at the conclusion of the investigation that there has been a breach of international law, a breach of UN sanctions, Nigeria is a member of the UN Security Council, we will do what is necessary,” he said.
Iran is currently under UN sanctions over its nuclear programme.
Security agents last month intercepted 13 containers discharged from the vessel CMA CGM Everest at the country’s busiest port of Apapa in Nigeria’s economic hub of Lagos.
Shipping firm CMA CGM said the containers had been loaded and sealed in Iran by an Iranian businessman who does not appear on an international list of prohibited traders. CMA CGM, based in France, said the containers were loaded in Bandar Abbas, a southern port city of Iran, and discharged in Lagos in July.
But some time last month the shipper sought to have the containers reloaded and sent to Gambia, a tiny west African country wedged inside Senegal, according to the firm.
