Kashamu’s Endless Extradition Battle


While the planned extradition of Senator Buruji Kashamu to the United States to face trial for an alleged drug-related crime has become a recurring decimal, Davidson Iriekpen wonders why the National Drug Laws Enforcement Agency which went to the United Kingdom in 2002 to testify in his favour is suddenly capitulating


On many occasions, he has produced records to show that even the NDLEA, which is now turning around to pursue his extradition, once went to the United Kingdom in 2002 to testify in his favour of Kashamu. He said even in 2013, the agency deposed to an affidavit that Buruji was not the same Kashamu that was indicted by a US court. So what has changed? Why is the same agency making a U-turn?


Just when Buruji Kashamu, the senator representing Ogun East senatorial district was beginning to think that respite had come his way over his planned extradition to the United States for trial on alleged drug-related crime, the National Drug Laws Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) last week revealed that plans were ongoing to push his arrest. The agency had predicated its decision on the latest ruling of a US court, which ruled that the senator must face trial on drug-related charges.

It stated that it would ensure that the orders stopping the arrest of the senator were vacated in a bid to pave the way for his extradition, noting that it would not undermine the extradition agreement that Nigeria had with the US with respect to the case involving Kashamu.


Trouble started for Kashamu, a businessman, when he maneuvered his way to become a prominent figure in the PDP and soon hijacked the party structure from those he met there, starting with Ogun State, from where he moved to the South-west geo-political zone.


This did not go down well with former President Olusegun Obasanjo, who promptly wrote an 18-page letter to the then President Goodluck Jonathan in December 2013. Obasanjo, in his letter, rejected Kashamu as the leader of the PDP in zone, alleging that he (Kashamu) is wanted in the US for drug-related offences.

However, Kashamu denied the allegation, saying Obasanjo was not happy that he was chosen as the PDP leader in the South-west. Since then, the senator has remained embattled, constantly sleeping with one of his eyes opened. He later contested and won election to represent Ogun East in the Senate. This even infuriated those who wanted him extradited to the US the more.


A few months to his inauguration as senator, Kashamu, still afraid that he could be abducted, filed a suit before a Federal High Court in Lagos accusing Obasanjo of working in concert with others to mastermind his arrest during his swearing-in. He alleged in the suit that the former president had concluded plans for him to be transported to the US in a private plane to face trial.


Kashamu stated that Obasanjo was desperate to deny him the opportunity of enjoying the mandate freely given to him to represent the people of Ogun East in the Senate. In his fundamental human rights enforcement suit against the Chairman, National Drug Laws Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) and 11 others, he prayed the court for an order to stop the alleged plot to extradite him to the US.

He also asked for a declaration of the court that the move to abduct and forcibly transport him to the US amounted to a violation of his right to liberty, freedom of association and freedom of movement as protected by Sections 35, 40 and 41 of the Constitution.


While the suit was pending, the NDLEA in May 2015 attempted to arrest him. Kashamu again, sued the NDLEA, Attorney-General of the Federation and others before Justice Abang, seeking to restrain them from arresting and extraditing him. The judge heard the case on May 8, 2015, during which the NDLEA, AGF and other defendants denied making any move to arrest him and urged Justice Abang to dismiss the suit for being speculative and showing no reasonable cause of action.

After hearing the case on May 8, Justice Abang reserved his judgment till May 27, 2015. But between May 23 and 25, 2015, operatives of the NDLEA laid siege at Kashamu’s house in Lekki, Lagos, wanting to arrest him, for the purpose of extraditing him. He, however, locked himself in and refused to turn himself over for arrest.


The senator later commenced contempt proceedings against the NDLEA, AGF and others before Justice Buba, alleging that the move to arrest him would be prejudicial to Justice Abang’s judgment, which was reserved for May 27, 2015. Justice Buba agreed with Kashamu’s lawyer, Dr. Alex Izinyon (SAN), and ordered the NDLEA operatives to vacate Kashamu’s house.


Justice Abang later delivered his judgment on May 27, 2015, barring the NDLEA, AGF and others from arresting and extraditing Kashamu. The judgment was later affirmed on June 8, 2015 by Justice Buba, who held that Kashamu could not be extradited unless Justice Okon Abang’s judgment was set aside by the Court of Appeal.

To the surprise of everybody, in his last few days in office, precisely on May 28, 2015, the then Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mohammed Adoke (SAN) initiated an action marked No. FHC/ABJ/ CS/479/2015, before Justice Gabriel Kolawole of the Federal High Court in Abuja and sought a warrant for Kashamu’s arrest. His action, according to him, was based on an affidavit deposed to by Assistant US Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, Diane MacArthur, attached to the extradition request from the US government, dated April 27, 2015.


But in his judgment on July 1, 2015, Justice Kolawole said he was unable to grant the AGF’s request because of the two earlier judgments of Justices Abang and Buba, which had barred the federal government from extraditing Kashamu.

He said: “In conclusion, I am unable to exercise my jurisdiction pursuant to sections 6, 7 and 8 of the Extradition Act Cap E25 to accede to the application to issue a warrant to effect the arrest of the respondent for the reason, which I have analysed in this ruling, because the orders made by Justices Abang and Buba of the Federal High Court, sitting in the Lagos Judicial Division, have not been appealed against by the applicant or have been set aside by the appellate court.”

While all these were going on, Kashamu has consistently maintained his innocence, accusing his political foes for his travails. He also accused them of twisting the ruling of the US court over his extradition trial. The senator said the case brought against him by the US government had been laid to rest by two British courts 14 years ago, and three Nigerian courts in 2015, all of which he said were not appealed.


He added that all the US could do was to “abduct” him, claiming that no extradition proceedings could be lawfully commenced against him. He claimed that he was mistaken for his younger brother, Adewale Kashamu, and was 14 years ago erroneously prosecuted by the US government in two English courts before he was exonerated.


On many occasions, he has produced records to show that even the NDLEA, which is now turning around to pursue his extradition, once went to the United Kingdom in 2002 to testify in his favour of Kashamu. He said even in 2013, the agency deposed to an affidavit that Buruji was not the same Kashamu that was indicted by a US court. So what has changed? Why is the same agency making a U-turn?

Tracing the genesis of the saga, Kashamu said while on a business trip to the UK in 1998, he was arrested at City Airport in London and detained, pursuant to an arrest warrant issued on the basis of an indictment in the US in which the name Alaji had been introduced as a party to an alleged offence of importation of narcotics. He denied ever visiting or residing in the US, as well as being involved in any business not to talk of a criminal activity whatsoever in the US.

Kashanu disclosed that his lawyers discovered some exculpatory evidence, which the US government had concealed from the courts in the extradition proceedings. The evidence, he said, was the outcome of a photo identification parade for the purpose of identifying the Alaji held in the US Attorney’s office.


“They had taken a mug shot of me and placed it with seven other photographs of black males who had facial hair that was similar to mine and were about my age too. After viewing the photo line-up, Fillmore, one of the accused, said the third photograph in the line-up looked like a bad photograph of the man they were looking for.


“He also declared that the second, fourth, sixth, seventh and eighth photographs did not at all look like the said Alaji. My mug shot was the seventh in the line-up. That was one of the photographs that Fillmore said did not at all look like the wanted kingpin. So, my lawyers immediately commenced a Habeas Corpus (a recourse in law whereby a person can report an unlawful detention or imprisonment before a court) application in the High Court of Justice, Queens Bench Division, for my release and the vacation of the committal order made by the Court. The English High Court in its judgment delivered on October 6, 2000, agreed that the order for my committal was null and void, having been the product of unfair proceedings in which the US government had suppressed exculpatory evidence,” he said.

Kashamu said the US authorities did not appeal the decision but re-arrested him and commenced a second extradition proceeding at the Bow Street Magistrate Court in England before District Judge Tim Workman. He said the US authorities produced several documents to refute the position that it was a case of mistaken identity and the person sought was his brother, Adewale Kashamu, including documents from the NDLEA which sought to establish that my brother Adewale had died in the 1980s.


Penultimate week, he issued another statement titled: ‘US court ruling: I have no case to answer,’ claiming that he has never been to US in his life. He said he was not the offender wanted in the US, but his younger brother, Adewale Kashamu, who is now late.


According to him, "My brother was living in Chicago, I sent to school. He's very well educated. He was the one having girlfriends there; he was the one who caused a lot of problems. Even when I was in London, they still traced almost $2million into his bank account while I was in prison. They still continued doing the transaction. If you go through the last British judgment, it is there.


"The Interpol people were the ones who went to the bank and got all the information, and carried all the documents, they came to London and gave evidence in court. The Beninoise Interpol produced evidence showing that the Benin telephone number, through which the US offenders communicated with their West African collaborators, belonged to my brother, Adewale Kashamu, and not me, Buruji Kashamu.


"When they were looking for him, the NDLEA people went to his house here, they searched his house. They went to his car company, they sealed his car company and they took over 30 vehicles from there. He ran away. He was using the office of Remi Adiukwu Oluwalogbon on Allen Avenue. For three good years, he did not pay Remi Adiukwu. The NDLEA people sealed the car company and they confirmed this in one of their letters."


His explanations justified why many are wondering if the NDLEA actually went to London to testify in favour kashamu, why it has not maintained that position and what went wrong. They actually wondered why it has refused to exhaust all the legal options before thinking of extraditing the senator rather than resorting to illegality.


"Since Kashamu has defeated them at the High Court, they should appeal. If they succeed at the Court of Appeal, I know Kashamu will definitely appeal to the Supreme Court. If the Supreme Court says he should be taking to US, then they can extradite him. For now whatever they are planning to do is illegal. Even in the US, there is process for extradition, which must be exhausted in court, "says Samson Adeyemi, a lawyer.

He Should Go N Defend Himself