Thanks again Laye for sharing the followup. Please keep us informed on this. The consignment may be destined for Hamas or Hezbollah but it represents gross disrespect of Nigeria's integrity and sovereignty by Iranian operatives. And consider that if these persons could easily use Nigeria and Gambia as transhipment points for arms, munitions, and election materielle, they could just as easily fuel internal ethnic and religious conflicts inside Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Mali, Burkina Faso, Sudan, Senegal, and any other banana republic between Nigeria and Lebanon by land. And that includes AQMI, Al-Qaa'Ida, and the Salafists of the Sahel region where we wondered how supplies of weapons are maintained. I hear that Nigeria and Iran have too valuable a partnership to allow the actions of these "fugitives" to tarnish that partnership. Well consider this Nigeria: 1-As far as you know, the actions of these individuals holes-up in the Iranian embassy and the few Nigerian citizen enablers, do not constitute the actions of either the Iranian government or the Nigerian government. Therefore the partnership between the two nations is UNAFFECTED and relies on mutual respect and honest dealings. 2-The Iranian embassy is the property of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the immunity it enjoys derives from the premise that it not harbor criminals or enemies of the host country. 3-If the Islamic Republic of Iran wishes to assert absolute immunity for her embassy, and refuses to hand over the fugitives of law, then it would demonstrate that Iran is not so valuable a partner with Nigeria afterall. And because the presence of the embassy itself in Nigeria pre-supposes the value-partnership of mutual respect and honest dealings, the act of harboring fugitives of high crimes in Nigerian in such embassy itself warrants the closure of the embassy if temporal to protest the breach of diplomatic protocol with the Iranian government. For all we know, the Iranian government is still not aware of the incident. I am convinced that when the Islamic Republic is informed of the incident, they will do the right thing and turn the fugitives over to law enforcement and accept any reprimand that issues from the case. That is how friendly and partner governments. I am confident that if the tables were turned and the Nigerian embassy in Iran harbors criminals of the Iranian nation, Nigeria and Nigerians will live to forever regret it. Forget diplomatic immunity and valuable partnership when embassies aid and abet crime and criminals. The Nigerian authorities and the Jonathan administration must be commended for this due-diligence. I hope this represents a new order in Nigeria and of Nigerians. They have lost much respect in the community of civilized nations for their corruption, scamming, unprofessionalism, and illicit conduct variously. But by God every person can change for the better and it is never too late to begin that process. Thank you people. Haruna. -----Original Message----- From: A Jallow <[log in to unmask]> To: GAMBIA-L <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Mon, Nov 1, 2010 6:05 am Subject: Fw: Nigeria: The Arms Imports: The Men Who Did It http://allafrica.com/stories/printable/201011010384.html Sheikh Ali Abbas Othman Hassan, better known in Nigerian activistMuslim circles as Sheikh Abbas Jega, was the man who facilitated theimportation of the controversial arms consignment into Nigeria, DailyTrust learnt from top security sources in Abuja yesterday. It was Sheikh Abbas who issued invitations to the two Iranianbusinessmen who imported the arms to come to Nigeria and thus helpedthem to secure visas, the sources said. His name was also given on theshipping documents as the owner of the 13 containers in Nigeria. TheSheikh is currently in Tehran. On the other hand, the two Iranian businessmen who actually arrangedfor the imports, Mr. Azimi Agajany and Mr. Sayed Akbar Tahmaesebi, Daily Trust learnt, are currently holed up in the Iranian Embassy in Abuja.They had arrived in Nigeria to facilitate the receiving and re-export of the weapons consignment and when Nigerian security agents seized thegoods, they fled into the Embassy grounds, regarded in international law as sovereign Iranian territory. Daily Trust also learnt that after the containers arrived at theApapa Ports in July, an attempt was made to clear them by Malam AliyuOroje Wamakko, a retired Senior Inspector of Customs who is into goodsclearing business. Wamakko is the only man currently being held by theState Security Service [SSS] in connection with the arms cargo, DailyTrust also learnt. Daily Trust learnt that Sheikh Abbas, holder of a NationalCertificate of Education [NCE] from the Shehu Shagari College ofEducation, Sokoto, has been very active in Muslim activist circles since the mid-1980s. He first went to Iran on a student visa in the early1990s and subsequently began to work for the Hausa Service of RadioTehran, a work that he still does. The Sheikh, who is about 45 yearsold, also visits Nigeria regularly and delivers lecturers at variousMuslim fora around the country. Daily Trust learnt from his associatesthat he occasionally imports some goods from Iran, notably ceramics andIslamic literature. According to our sources, of the two Iranian businessmen now hidingin Abuja, the Foreign Ministry was able to confirm that Agajany obtained a visa from the Nigerian Embassy in Tehran upon Abbas' recommendation,but it is believed that Tahmaesebi obtained his visa from another, yetto be determined embassy. Daily Trust learnt that when the arms import scandal broke last week, Foreign Ministry officials in Abuja summoned the Iranian Ambassador toNigeria and demanded that he hands over the two businessmen forquestioning. Sources said although the ambassador did not deny that they were hiding in the embassy, he asked for three days from last Friday to consult with his government. Daily Trust also learnt that the Iranian Foreign Minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, who is currently on a tour of West African countries, arrivedin Benin Republic from Ghana yesterday and could come to Nigeria thisweek to help break the impasse. Sources further said the NigerianAmbassador to Iran, Alhaji Abubakar Chika Sarkin Yaki, has been inNigeria trying to organise meetings of the Nigeria-Iran Joint Commission and is now working to solve the crisis. According to security sources, the clearing agent Wamakko's attemptto clear the goods from the Apapa Ports since its arrival in July wasfrustrated by the absence of two key papers: Form M and RAR, or RiskAssessment Report. When it became impossible to clear the goods, Wamakko and the Iranian businessmen applied for permission to re-export thegoods to The Gambia. This ultimately led to the goods' seizure and thediscovery of the arms cache. Wamakko, who is now being held by the SSS, retired from the NigeriaCustoms Service in 2007 and promptly waded into politics, contesting for the Wamakko/Kware Federal house seat on the platform of the DemocraticPeoples Party [DPP]. After losing the election, he went into goodsclearing at the ports. Daily Trust learnt from some security sources yesterday that theIsraeli government's claim that the weapons were meant for Hamas in theGaza Strip was apparently true because Iran is the main weapons supplier to Hamas and the Lebanese Hezbollah groups through many secretchannels. The sources also pointed out that the Iranian businessmen andWamakko tried to take the consignment out of Nigeria. Diplomatic sources told Daily Trust that the Federal Government waskeen to resolve the developing crisis over the arms import becauseNigeria and Iran have an important partnership, being co-members ofOPEC, the G-8, the G-15, the Organisation of Islamic Conference [OIC]and the Non-Aligned Movement. However, the Foreign Ministry wasinsistent that the only way to avoid a row in relations is to allow theSSS access to Agajany and Tahmaesebi now holed up in the IranianEmbassy. Associates of Sheikh Ali Abbas Othman told Daily Trust yesterday that he was in Nigeria for about a month earlier this year and that he wasfrequently seen with Wamakko, the clearing agent. The associates alsotold Daily Trust that Sheikh Abbas introduced many Iranians to theNigerian Embassy in Tehran over the years for the purpose of acquiringvisas and may not have known that the consignment contained weapons. It will be recalled that on Tuesday last week, security agents inLagos intercepted 13 containers that contained a variety of weapons,including rocket launchers and rockets. The containers, loaded in India, were brought to Apapa Port last July by the ship MV. The ship's ownershave since denied knowledge of the weapons inside the containers, saying they were delivered to it sealed. Israeli sources later told Associated Press that the weapons were from Iran and were meant for Hamas in theGaza Strip. ¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interfaceat: http://listserv.icors.org/archives/gambia-l.html To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to: ¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤ To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://listserv.icors.org/archives/gambia-l.html To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to: http://listserv.icors.org/SCRIPTS/WA-ICORS.EXE?S1=gambia-l To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to: [log in to unmask] ¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤