Is Nigeria too eager to extradite its citizens accused of crime? Yes, say some lawyers who have advocated a review of the country’s extradition policy, writes ERIC IKHILAE from Abuja.
In recent time, the rate at which the Federal Government,through the office of the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), Mohammed Adoke (SAN) approaches the court for permission to extradite its citizens abroad for trial is becoming alarming.
The zeal often displayed by state officials, in arguing such extradition applications in court, always gives the impression that the Nigerian government enjoys shipping abroad, its citizens, accused of involvement in criminal activities.
Even for offences that could be adequately prosecuted by Nigerian courts, the Federal Government is always too eager to extradite Nigerians abroad for trial.
The government cannot be totally faulted, in view of the fact that most of such extradition requests are hinged on existing mutual agreements/treaties between Nigeria and such foreign countries.
The government’s seeming willingness to honour every extradition request is however worrisome, when viewed in the light of the fact that most foreign countries, particularly the United States, hardly allow their citizens to be tried in foreign territories.
While most of these foreign governments hinge their decisions on the need to protect their national interests and those of their citizens, it seems such considerations never count in the case of Nigeria, where state officials even attempt to extradite Nigerians to countries with which the country has no extradition treaties.
One of such cases was that involving Kingsley Edegbe. The Federal Government had, upon a request by the Kingdom of Netherlands, applied to the Federal High Court, Abuja for an order extraditing Edegbe to Netherlands for trial over his alleged involvement in human trafficking.
Edegbe was said to have allegedly belonged to an international syndicate involved in the trafficking of Nigerian girls to the Netherlands for prostitution and other related acts. He was said to be particularly wanted in connection with the trafficking of about six Nigerian girls, aged 25 from Nigeria to the Netherlands between 2006 and 2007.
The documents filed along with the extradition application showed that, if successfully extradited, Edegbe would face charges bordering on human trafficking, human smuggling, falsification of travel documents, forgery of travel documents, abduction of minors from the authority having legal custody over them and participating in a criminal organization.
The alleged offences were said to be punishable by deprivation of liberty of more than one year and covered by Articles 3, 5 and 16 of the United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organised Crime (TOC Convention), which Nigeria signed and ratified with its protocol on December 9 and 14 2004.
But for Justice Ahmed Mohammed’s refusal to grant the order of extradition, Edegbe would have been shipped to a foreign land for trial, even when he allegedly trafficked Nigerian girls, an offence that the Nigerian courts could effectively prosecute.
Justice Mohammed held, in his judgment, that the Federal Government failed to show that an extradition treaty existed between the country and Netherland on which such order of extradition could be based.
“The court has not been shown any extradition treaty between Nigeria and the Netherlands upon which the application sought could have been granted. The reliance on the United Nation’s Convention against Transnational Organised Crime fails because it is not an extradition treaty Act as envisaged by section 1 of the Extradition Act of Nigeria.
“This court is not prepared to hold that an extradition treaty exits between the Netherlands and Nigeria when there is none. It is a dangerous precedent to abandon an existing law to enable the extradition of the suspect,” the judge said.
Even when a the country sought the extradition from Sudan, of a Nigerian, Aminu Sadiq Ogwuche, the alleged mastermind of the Nyanya bomb blast, the Sudanese government did not jump at the request from Nigeria. It took months of rigorous scrutiny before the Sudanese government could release a Nigerian suspected to have been involve in the commission of a capital offence for trial in his country (Nigeria).
Some few years ago some foreign citizens were accused of bribing some Nigerian officials in the Siemens, Julius Berger and Halliburton scandal. They were charged in Nigerian courts, but were never tried. Their companies were only made to pay some money as fine to the Nigerian government, after which the officials and their companies were let off the hook.
However, two senior Siemens officials were found guilty of breach of trust and abetting bribery in Nigeria by a Munich court in Germany.
Also, the Nigerian government once brought charges against a former ýUnited States’ Vice President, Dick Cheney, who it charged with corruption. He was charged as the Head of Halliburton when the company’s engineering subsidiary, KBR purportedly paid bribes to secure contract in Nigeria.
The trial never went on as the Nigerian government, on October 14, 2010 ýdiscontinued the case. It was not in public domain whether Federal Government applied to the countries of these foreign nationals for their extradition to Nigeria for them to be tried here.
Observers are of the view that since the Nigerian government is always eager to send its citizens abroad for trial, it should have also insisted that these foreign citizens were brought to Nigeria for trial.
The latest case is that involving a former managing director of the Nigerian Security Printing and Minting (NSMPC) Plc, Emmanuel Okoyomon, who the Federal Government seeks extradite to the United Kingdom for trial.
Okoyomon is purportedly wanted in UK over his alleged role in the bribery scandal involving officials of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), NSMPC and Securency International Pty of Australia, between 2006 and 2008.
The government, through AGF applied on September 23 this year, for an order to enable it extradite Okoyomon to the United Kingdom based on a purported request by a UK’s Diplomatic Representatives, based on a supposed extradition treaty between the United States of America and Great Britain, signed in London on December 22, 1931.ý
At the hearing of the extradition application recently before Justice Evoh Chukwu of the Federal High Court, Abuja, the AGF argued that the 1931 treaty between the US and Great Britain was binding on Nigeriaý.
Alex Iziyon (SAN), representing Okoyomon, disagreed, arguing that the treaty which the AGF relied on is not applicable to Nigeria and could not be a ground to extradite a Nigerian Citizen to the UK.
“There is no treaty between the UK and Nigeria for the purpose of extradition of the respondent (Okoyomon) or any other person contrary to the submissions and assertions of the applicant (AGF). The treaty between the United States of America and Great Britain applied on to pre-independent Nigeria as part of the British colony at the time, and therefore subject at that time, to the treaty.
“However, after Nigeria’s independence, all the imperial treaties and Acts applicable to Nigeria were repealed by the Extradition Act, Decree No. 87, 1966 which came into force on January 31, 1967. In the absence of any Act of the National Assembly domesticating or making the said treaty applicable to Nigeria, no Nigerian can be extradited to the UK,” Iziyon said.
Justice Chukwu has fixed judgment in this case for December 17.
While many await the court’s judgment on this important case, lawyers have suggested that rather than ýsending Nigerians abroad for trial over cases that could be effectively tried by courts in the country, the government should consider strengthening the courts and prosecuting agencies like the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to enhance their capacity to deal with such cases.
Dr. Richard Chukwuemeka noted that the EFCC hasý experienced investigators and prosecutors, who can handle complex cases. He argued that pandering to foreign authorities by sending our citizens abroad for trial makes the country look cheap before other countries.
“Nigerian authorities should be reminded that patriotism is not imposed on citizens. It is only when citizens believe that their country can protect their interests at any time that they will be willing to do anything for such a country. We should let citizens’ interests drive our policy direction in this country, particularly on foreign relations.” he said.
Another lawyer, Abdulazeez Ahmed of the Centre for Democratic Right (CDR), noted that the prison transfer agreement the country recently signed with the UK will be defeated if “we extradite our people to be tried in the UK only to have them shipped back to Nigeria to serve their prison terms. Those in authorities should reconsider the idea of taking Nigerians abroad to face trial at the behest of other countries, who are always reluctant to treat their citizens that way,” he said.
