The trial of five men who were charged with illegal importation of 661 pump-action guns continued on Monday, with the first defendant, Mahmud Hassan, alleging that the gang paid N1m to security agents to smuggle in the gun consignment at Apapa Port, Lagos.
Hassan made the allegation in a video played in court on Monday by the prosecution.
The video was played in a trial-within-trial to test the voluntariness of the statement made by Hassan while in the custody of the Department of State Services.
Hassan’s lawyer, Yakubu Galadima had, at the previous hearing, opposed the move by the prosecution to tender his client’s statement as an exhibit, contending that he was tortured to make the statement.
Justice Ayokunle Faji had then ordered a trial-within-trial to test the voluntariness of the statement.
The video captured Hassan as saying while being quizzed that, “I gave N1m to facilitate the moving of the container out of the port, but it is not because of the guns.”
When Mamadu was asked how the N1m was shared among security agencies, the defendant said, “The examiners were given N200,000, C.I.O. N100,000, enforcement N200,000; police, SSS, between N20,000, N25,000, and N30,000; the toll gates, N200,000, exit gate, N20,000, and final gate, N50,000.”
