Extradition: NDLEA fails to bring Kashamu to court

The National Drug Law Enforcement
Agency on Monday failed to bring
the senator-elect for Ogun-East
senatorial district, Mr. Buruji
Kashamu, before a Federal High
Court, Lagos, for extradition hearing
despite a declaration by the agency
that he would be produced in court.
The agency, whose operatives had
laid siege to Kashamu’s residence
in Lagos since Saturday, said on
Sunday that it had received a
formal extradition request on
Kashamu from the United States
government and was coming to
court to secure an extradition order
on Monday.
Though Kashamu’s lawyer, Dr. Alex
Izinyon (SAN), had come to court
early in anticipation of the NDLEA’s
declaration, the agency, however,
failed to bring Kashamu to court.
Izinyon’s colleague, Mr. Ajibola
Oluyede, who later came to court
and appeared in chambers before
Justice Ibrahim Buba with a fresh
application, said the NDLEA failed to
produce a warrant of arrest it
claimed to have secured.
Though Oluyede moved his ex
parte application in chambers and
did not oblige journalists any copy
of it, our correspondent gathered
that it was an application to
restrain the NDLEA from further
laying siege to Kashamu’s house.
It was learnt that Buba, however,
refused to make the order but
asked Oluyede to put the
respondents on notice.
Oluyede, who later addressed
journalists, said Buba had ordered
the Attorney General of the
Federation, Mohammed Adoke
(SAN), and the Chairman of the
NDLEA, Ahmadu Giade, to appear in
court on Tuesday to explain why
they should not be jailed for
contempt of court.
Oluyede, who accused Adoke and
Giade of illegality, challenged them
to produce the US extradition
request for Kashamu.
He said Kashamu and himself were
ready on Monday and had waited in
vain till 12pm for the NDLEA to
produce the warrant of arrest and
bring it to court, following which he
had to come to court himself with a
fresh application.
There was no indication that NDLEA
had filed any application before the
court and the NDLEA’s case against
Kashamu was not listed for hearing
on Monday before any judge.
But the agency’s Head of Public
Affairs, Mitchell Ofoyeju, in a
statement on Monday afternoon,
said the agency could not bring
Kashamu to court because he failed
to turn himself over to the
operatives in his house.
Ofoyeju said, “Senator-elect Buruji
Kashamu has failed to appear in
court from his house where he is
being closely monitored by the
operatives of the National Drug Law
Enforcement Agency.
“The agency is working hard to
ensure that he submits himself to
the due process of the law. His
house remained cordoned off by
anti-narcotic officers pending his
appearance in court.”
But Oluyede claimed that an
operative of the NDLEA came to the
court registry late Monday
afternoon to secure a provisional
warrant of arrest.
According to Oluyede, the move
was a confirmation that the NDLEA
had no extradition request for
Kashamu from the US, adding that
the move was also a confirmation
of Kashamu’s alarm that the NDLEA
was doing the bidding of his
political enemies.
The lawyer alleged that the
embattled senator-elect’s enemies
planned to abduct and forcibly take
him to the US.
Oluyede said he was told by the
leader of the NDLEA operatives
manning Kashamu’s house that
they were acting under the
instruction of Giade, whom he said
was only given an oral instruction
by Adoke to arrest Kashamu.
The lawyer, in his fresh application,
is seeking an order “directing the
respondents to immediately
release the applicant
unconditionally, within two hours
of making this order, from any
arrest, detention or other restraint
whatsoever that the respondents
might have instigated or effected
upon him.”
Meanwhile, the premises of the
Lagos Division of the Federal High
on Oyinkan Abayomi Drive, Ikoyi,
was on Monday flooded with the
loyalists of Kashamu – in
anticipation of his appearance in
court.
The loyalists bore placards with
inscriptions such as, “We want
Kashamu here in Nigeria,” “Don’t
steal our joy from us,” “Don’t take
Kashamu away from his people.”
“Kashamu is not a drug baron.” “‘US,
mind your business,” “We want due
process of law,” “Obj, leave
Kashamu alone,” among others.
A former state secretary of the
Peoples Democratic Party in Ogun
State, who spoke on behalf of the
peaceful protesters in court, Yemi
Akinwonmi, described the move to
extradite Kashamu as “a reckless
display of power.”
Akinwonmi, who challenged the
NDLEA to present the extradition
request it claimed to have received
from the US, insisted that the
extradition plot against Kashamu
was purely political, adding also
that the NDLEA had not secured any
warrant to arrest Kashamu.

Hmmm, asem ooo