Container spent 10-12 days, Iranian tells court

By BARTHOLOMEW MADUKWE
An Iranian national, Azim Aghajani  who is on trial over the alleged illegal importation of firearms and ammunitions into the country yesterday told a Federal High Court in Lagos that the container had been in Lagos for 10 days before it was discovered by custom officers on July 17, 2010.

He said: “It was between 10 and 12 days that the container had been in Lagos. They needed my services because of my good command of English and wanted me to hurry up to Nigeria because the containers were accumulating demurrage.

They (Seifian and Behineh) told me that they have accepted to send the consignment to the nearest destination which is Lagos Nigeria. Then Mr Behineh told me that they have already sent the container.”

Aghajani, who claimed that he did not know the true contents of the consignments, explained that he was introduced by his friend Ismaeel Seifian to one Mr Masood Behineh in Tehran, Iran who contracted him to help his company known as Behineh Trading Company to ship a 13 container load of building materials to Gambia through Nigeria since there are no direct shipping line to Gambia.