SENATOR representing Ogun East Chief Buruji Kashamu has again asked the Federal High Court in Lagos to stop the Federal Government from extraditing him to the United States (U.S.) to face trial for alleged drug offences.
He is seeking an order of perpetual injunction restraining the government or its agents from arresting or detaining him or interfering with his right to liberty and freedom of movement.
Kashamu filed the fresh suit through his new lawyer, Mr. Rickey Tarfa (SAN).
He named Inspector-General of Police; Commissioner of Police, Lagos State; Director-General, State Security Service (DSS); National Drugs Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA); and Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) as defendants.
He is also urging the court to declare that the instructions given by the AGF to the IG, the Commissioner of Police, Lagos State, DG of DSS and the NDLEA on May 25, 2018 were a breach of his fundamental rights to personal liberty and freedom of movement under sections 35 and 41 of the Constitution and Article 14 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights.
Kashamu, in his affidavit in support of the suit, maintained that he was not the person wanted for narcotics offences in the U.S., adding that the British court had in 2003 exonerated him.
He said: “The position is that the respondents are well aware that the applicant was not involved in the alleged narcotics offence committed in the U.S. in 1994 and that the British court has exonerated the applicant of any such complicity in the proceedings brought against the applicant by the U.S. authorities in London from 1998 to 2003.
He averred that the Federal Government, represented by two officers of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, Dan Asebe Umaru and Femi Oloruntoba, had given evidence at the second of the said proceedings instituted in England by the U.S. authorities against the applicant at the Bow Street Magistrates’ Court between 2002 and 2003, that the applicant was not the person implicated in the alleged narcotics offence committed in the U.S. in 1994 and District Judge Time Workman had consequently stated in his judgment, delivered on January 10, 2003, that the applicant was not the person sought by the U.S. authorities.
Justice C.J. Aneke has fixed hearing in the suit till November 15, 2018.
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