Tag: Kashamu

THE Federal Ministry of Justice’s officials and lawyers to Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP’s) chieftain, Buruji Kashamu, are awaiting hearing date in the extradition application filed before the Federal High Court, Abuja in relation to the senator-elect.

The office of the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), is by its application, seeking the court’s permission to transfer Kashamu to the United States (U.S.) following a purported extradition application by the country.

The Nation learnt yesterday that the AGF’s application has been assigned to Justice Gabriel Kolawole of Court Five of the Federal High Court, Abuja.

 It was also learnt that the judge is yet to fix a date for its hearing.

The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) claimed on Tuesday to have served copies of the extradition application on Kashamu on Monday.

Justice Okon Abang of a Federal High Court in Lagos yesterday barred the police and other law enforcement agencies from arresting or extraditing Senator-elect Prince Buruji Kashamu to the United States (U.S.) to stand trial for alleged drug trafficking.

He made the order while delivering judgment in a fundamental rights suit filed by Kashamu against the Inspector General of Police (IGP) and 11 others.

The judge also awarded N20,000 cost in favour of the applicant against Chairman of National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) Ahmadu Giade (N10,000), the National Security Adviser (NSA), Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC).

He added that the money must be paid before further steps can be taken.

The judge declared as illegal any attempt to abduct or forcibly transport Kashamu to the U.S. to stand trial in relation to drug-trafficking allegations from which he had been exonerated by two British courts.

He further held that having earlier obtained a subsisting court judgment in Nigeria on January 6, last year, restraining his arrest, extradition to the U.S., Kashamu cannot be arrested nor extradited to America by the respondents.

Suspecting a conspiracy between the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF), Mohammed Adoke and the IGP, Solomon Arase, to abduct and whisk him to the U.S. before his swearing-in on May 29 as a senator, Kashamu had in April, instituted a suit before the court seeking nine declarative orders against the agencies.

Other respondents in the suit include Chairman, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC); Director General, State Security Service (SSS); The Interpol National Central Bureau (NCB); the Clerk of the National Assembly; Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC); Nigeria Custom Services (NCS), and Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS).

He had prayed the court for an order restraining the defendants and their agents  from arresting, detaining, or otherwise effecting his abduction upon spurious allegation; and an order  directing the clerk of the National Assembly to accord him every facility and privileges due to him as a senator-elect.

Kashamu also sought a declaration that the arrangements being made by the defendants in collusion with U.S. security operatives in West Africa and his political opponents, led by Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo, to abduct him and forcibly transport him to U.S. on the basis of allegations which have been the subject of investigation by Interpol and litigation in competent court in the United Kingdom, of which he has been exonerated,  illegal, unlawful, ultra vires and constitute breach of his fundamental rights to freedom of movement as enshrined in section 41 of Constitution.

However, of the nine reliefs sought, the court granted six and struck out three on grounds that the three were fatal to the granting of the others.

Justice Abang held the three reliefs (1,2,and 3) struck out concerned Chief Obasanjo who was not joined as a respondent in the suit.

He said: “The none joinder of Chief Obasanjo is fatal to prayer 1,2,3 on this issue. I agree entirely with the counsel representing the Clerk of the National Assembly that Chief Obasanjo ought to have been joined by the applicant.

“Though no relief is sought against Obasanjo, but I cannot agree with the applicant that Obasanjo concluded with the 1, 2 and 6 respondents to abduct him to the U.S.

“The reliefs 1 to 3 are incompetent and are hereby struck out, but I have not dismissed these reliefs.”

On the argument by Chairman, NDLEA that he cannot sue nor be sued, the court held that the argument was unjustifiable.

“The Chairman of NDLEA is not an artificial person, he is a natural person; he is not a ghost. Having taken decisions for that office, he can sue and be sued.

“He cannot infringe on the right of another person and then claim that he is not a juristic person.”

Dismissing the objections by the respondents that the suit was speculative, the court held that the applicant has reasonable cause of action to be apprehensive that they had plans to abduct him.

“The entire claims of the applicant are within the ambit of Chapter 4 of the 1999 Constitution. If the applicant is abducted, kidnapped and taken to the U.S. by force, without the respondents complying with the Extradition Act, it means that he is taken away without his consent and that would constitute a breach of his fundamental right to personal liberty and freedom of movement as enshrined in sections 35 and 40 of the 1999 Constitution. This is so, whether or not the conspiracy is a criminal offence.

“The claims fall within Chapter 4 of the Constitution and I have jurisdiction to entertain the applicant’s claims.

“The respondents cannot be perpetually restrained from arresting the applicant, but restrained from unlawful arrest of the applicant without compliance to the provision of the extradition Act.

“The applicant had been cleared of the same offence by a UK court and a restraining judgment from a Nigerian court was unchallenged by the respondents (AGF and NDLEA),” he ruled.

A chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Buruji Kashamu, hass spoken of how he uncovered alleged plot by the United States (U.S.) to abduct and transfer him to the country for trial over his purported complicity in illicit drug deals.

Kashamu, now a senator-elect, representing Ogun East, said a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (names withheld), who is “very close” to the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), Mohammed Adoke (SAN), leaked the plot to his lawyer, Ajibola Oluyede, on a flight from Lagos to Abuja.

He said this in a letter to the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), in which he is seeking the commission’s intervention.

Kashamu, in the letter, written for him by Oluyede, also alleged of plot to eliminate him by some political enemies.

He also mentioned the name of the Acting Inspector General of Police (IGP), Solomon Arase, in the alleged plot.

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo had, in a December 2013 letter to President Goodluck Jonathan, alleged that Kashamu was wanted in the U.S. for his purported complicity in drug related offences.

Kashamu, who denied the allegation, later initiated a N20 billion libel suit against Obasanjo before the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, over the allegation.

The trial judge, Justice Valentine Ashi, on the basis of the suit, stopped Obasanjo from publishing and selling his book – “My Watch,” which Kashamu claimed contained similar allegations.

The court lifted the restraining orders against Obasanjo on April 15, with the substantive case still pending.

Part of the letter by Kashamu reads: “On a flight to the Federal Capital, Abuja from Lagos sometime in October 2014, a colleague and friend of our principal partner, R. A. Oluyede, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), who is also very close to the AGF, informed Mr. Oluyede of the tremendous pressure that Chief (Olusegun) Obasanjo was bringing upon the AGF for the extradition of Prince Kashamu and that, in one discussion between the AGF and Chief Obasanjo, witnessed by him (the SAN), Chief Obasanjo  had boasted that he was making arrangements with some U.S. officials in the region to have Prince Kashamu abducted and flown in a private plane to the U.S.

“He advised that Mr. Oluyede tell Prince Kashamu, known widely to be his client, to be very careful. Prince Kashamu’s enquiry about this information revealed that indeed, there had been moves made by U.S. officials within the region, to secure the assistance of the head of the INTERPOL division in Nigeria, Mr. Solomon Arase, a Deputy Inspector General of Police, for the arrest  and delivery of Kashamu to the U.S. officials  for transportation to the U.S. without following the due process required by the Nigeria Extradition Act.

“Mr. Kashamu’s informant revealed that Arase has confirmed that one Donna Chabot approached him in January 2015. The said Ms Chabot is an Attache, Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement at the American Embassy route Des Almedies BP 49 Dakar Senegal and requested that INTERPOL Nigeria assist in the abduction of Kashamu for the purpose of his forcible transportation to the U.S. to face trial before Judge Norgel.”

“The discussion between Mr. Arase and Ms Chabot revealed that it has become quite clear that the U.S. authorities have no hope of extraditing Prince Kashamu from any country in the world in view of the failure of the identification evidence available to them, which has been discredited and rejected by the English court.

“Prince Kashamu has also revealed that on the 4th of April 2015 at about 2pm, he received a call from a Nigerian security officer, who he had agreed to keep anonymous in any proceedings.

“The said security officer stated that he had called to warn Prince Kashamu that arrangements were almost completed for his abduction and forcible transportation to the U.S. by U.S. security officials in the sub-region under the supervision of the Head of the FBI, West Africa Office, stationed in the U.S. Embassy in Abuja, one Ahamdi Uche.

“The entire operation is being coordinated from the Homeland Security office in Washington DC and they have links with security apparatus in Belgium, Republic of Benin, Senegal, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Conakry, England, Germany, all countries they believe that Prince Kashamu might visit and from where they want to be ready to abduct him.

“The moving minds behind the operation are Stevan Bunnell, the General Counsel of the Department, acting on the instigation and with support of Chief Obasanjo. The two are the approving officers for the project of effecting Prince Kashamu’s abduction, using Ms Chabot of the Homeland Security office in the Dakar, Senegal U.S. Embassy  and Mr. Ahamdi Uche of the FBI, West African office in the U.S. Embassy in Abuja.

The Ogun East senatorial candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Prince Dapo Abiodun, has filed a petition before the Election Petition Tribunal in Abeokuta, the state capital.

Abiodun is seeking to challenge the declaration of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Buruji Kashamu, as the winner of the election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

Abiodun, in his petition, stated that he would rely on form EC8E (1) to prove that Kashamu did not score the highest numbers of valid votes cast on March 28 and that his (Kashamu’s) victory should be declared of no effect by reason of electoral malpractices allegedly committed.

He also prayed that he should be declared by the court as the duly elected senator-elect for Ogun East and ought to have been returned as the senator-elect.

Joined in the petition are PDP, INEC and the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC).

According to the petitioner, PDP, INEC and  the REC also failed to comply with all the relevant electoral laws.

Yusuf Ali and three others are to help the petitioner prosecute the case and convince the tribunal that “Kahamu was not duly elected by majority of the lawful votes cast in the election”.

The petitioner also averred in an affidavit that Kashamu was sighted distributing cash to some people to canvass votes at every polling unit and also openly assuring voters that they were entitled to N2,000, if they vote for him.

The petitioner also claimed that Kashamu was not fit to contest because he has been allegedly indicted by a grand jury in the United States’ Federal Judicial Circuit for alleged drug related offences.

Kashamu was also alleged to have spent five years in a UK prison after the US government requested for his extradition.